Bonus Story: The Original Ultimate Meeting
by Shara Raizel
Summary: These are the original 1st 6 chapters of The Ultimate Gathering of the DigiDestined. The only difference between this story and the one I'm working on is that the 1st season cast of Digimon is in it alongside the casts of Adventur02, Tamers, and Frontier
1. Chapter 1

This is the first chapter of the original version of the Ultimate Gathering of the DigiDestined. I've finally posted them, but they are unaltered from when I had originally written with so they are riddled with spelling errors and mistakes. There are only 6 of these chapters and most of the story line is the same. The only significant difference in these chapter is that the Adventure 01 cast is in it. I hope that you enjoy these bonus chapters.

I DO NOT OWN DIGIMON ADVENTURE, 02, TAMERS, FRONTIER OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.

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Chapter 1: August 1

Within the last thirty years alone technology has surpassed itself at an amazing rate. The computer alone has advanced far beyond its original capabilities. Now people all over the world are plugged into it's system as its technologies continue to advance. This story takes place in this world of ours, but in four different realities. Japan is known for their technological scientists so it only seems fitting to be the beginning setting for this story. The story of the ultimate gathering of DigiDestined…

Digimon Adventure

Hikari "Kari" Kamiya was lying down on the couch looking at a small handheld gizmo called a digivice. It was a small white device that was a square with rounded sides curved in at the corners with a mini square screen within a circle in the center of the device. There was a short antenna in the top curved in left corner, two blue buttons to the right of the screen and one on the left. It was this small gadget that marked her as one of eight special children known as the DigiDestined.

She was listening to her older brother shuffle through their bedroom looking for his goggles. Because he'd been in a fowl mood last night after losing a soccer game he had thrown his goggles in a fit. Now he was desperately looking for them before leaving to meet up with their friends, the other six DigiDestined.

Last summer Kari's brother, Taichi "Tai" Kamiya, and six others went to summer camp and ended up in another world, the Digital world. The Digital world is where Digital Monsters, more commonly known as Digimon, live and where all seven of them met a Digimon that became their best friends and partners. Later, when they returned to their own world, they searched for the final DigiDestined, the eighth child. Kari Kamiya herself turned out to be the one they were looking for. The reason why she hadn't been with them when the others went to the Digital world for the first time was because she had had a cold and couldn't go to summer camp with Tai.

An evil Digimon, Myotismon, had come to their world and wanted to destroy her and the other DigiDestined so that there would be no one in the way of his domination of both the Digital world and the human world. She joined her brother and the other children with her own Digimon partner and together the DigiDestined saved both worlds. It just so happened that today was the anniversary of the very day Kari became a DigiDestined and they defeated Myotismon, but it was also the day they lost a good ally and friend, Wizardmon.

"Tai!" Kari sighed. "We're gonna be late!"

"In a – ah!" –crash– "minute!" Tai cried.

"_Oh brother_," Kari thought. "_Of all days to lose those stupid goggles it had to be today!_"

There was another loud crash from their room before Tai came out triumphantly snapping his goggles on over his blue headband with a hectic smile; his brown eyes flashing and his thick brown hair was mussed up pointedly and crazily. He was wearing his usual blue T-shirt that had a yellow collar and an orange star on each short sleeve, brown knee length shorts and white gloves.

"Ok lets go!" he cried as he rushed to the front entry to put on his blue and white shoes.

Kari sighed again as she rolled off the couch and followed her brother out the door. She had the same brown eyes as her brother, but her hair was a lighter shade. She wore a yellow sleeve-less shirt, pink shorts, pink and white shoes, and a light pink bandana around her neck.

It took them fifteen minutes to reach the park where they were meeting everyone else. Waiting there for them were only two others: Joe Kido and Koushiro "Izzi" Izumi.

Joe was a tall lanky blue haired boy with brown-framed glasses. He wore a white polo shirt under a creamy sweater vest, grayish tan knee length shorts, tall blue socks, red and white sneakers, a yellow sweat band on his right wrist and a green watch on his left.

Izzi was a small boy with puffy spiked reddish-brown hair. He was wearing an orange button-up shirt, olive green shorts, creamy yellow gloves, and purple and dark gray sneakers with lightening bolds on the sides.

"Ha! See Kari, we're not late!" Tai laughed with relief. "Hey Izzi! Joe!"

The two boys turned around.

"Hey Tai!" Joe called.

Izzi waved, but looked away for a moment.

"Here come Mimi and Sora," he said.

Coming from the opposite side of the park clearing two girls were hurriedly approaching. Mimi Tachikawa, a rather pretty girl with light brown eyes and hair, was wearing her trademark salmon pink cowgirl dress with the brown belt and golden buckle, brown gloves, pink cowboy hat, pink socks, and creamy colored shoes with brown straps. The other girl, Sora Takenouchi, was a redhead tomboy with short hair wearing a sleeve-less yellow shirt, jeans, blue hat, pink gloves, and grey and hot pink sneakers.

"Sorry we're late!" Mimi gasped as she and Sora came to a stop.

"Great," said Tai. "Now all we're missing is Matt and T.K."

"We're right here Tai!" called a voice.

Tai and Kari turned around to face the way they'd come.

Two boys, brothers, were jogging to join the others. Yamato "Matt" Ishida was a blond haired, blue-eyed boy with his hair styled with gel in a cool spiked fashion. He wore a green sleeve-less shirt, jeans, brown boots and gloves. Takeru "T.K." Ishida, also blue-eyed and blond, wore a green long-sleeved shirt and vest, tan shorts, yellow socks, green and white sneakers, and a green hat with a blue gem on the front.

The gang was finally together again. No one could believe that it had only been one year ago that they were pulled into the digital world and told that they were destined to save it an its inhabitants. Yet here they were, once strangers, now the best of friends bonded by something no one else in the world could possibly understand… or so they thought…

Digimon Adventure 02

It just so happens that the _same_ Kari Kamiya and T.K. Ishida were waiting in the _same_ park three years into the future waiting for the _same_ group of friends to join them for the _same_ reason. Only in this time there were four others who were now part of the group. Within the past year in this time new troubles had risen in the Digiworld, therefore needing the DigiDestined once again.

To help defeat these new evils three new children were chosen with a new model of Digivice they came to call a D3 and a gained a new manner of Digivolving. T.K. and Kari were the only two of the original DigiDestined to have a new upgraded digivice and able to continue on with the new current DigiDestined. The other six original children helped behind the scenes supplying alibis and excuses for the others so that they could perform their duties within the Digital world without their families knowing.

The first foe that these new DigiDestined faced was a boy known in the Digital world as the Digimon Emperor, but he turned out to be the boy genius Ken Ichijoji. Ken was under the influence of a virus called a dark spore that had entered his body the first time he'd gone to the Digital world as a little boy. It consumed him with darkness but when Ken finally realized what he was doing was wrong and that the Digimon were real living beings he cast aside his alter ego. It took a while but he finally joined the DigiDestined after a lot of prodding from the new leader of the DigiDestined, Daisuke "Davis" Motomiya, who was the only one willing to give him a second chance after all that Ken had done. Now there were twelve DigiDestined in their group and many others all over the world. Now after all they'd been through, the DigiDestined of Japan were gathering for a reunion.

Kari was wearing a pink and white top, yellow shorts, and long pink fingerless gloves, tall white socks pink zip up shoes and wore a camera around her neck.

T.K. now wore a green shirt and tan vest, greenish gray shorts and turquoise shoes with grey socks. He still wore a hat, but now he preferred a plain cream colored one to what he used to wear as a kid.

The two of them had run into each other on the way to the park and decided to wait together. They were awfully close to each other these days much to the dislike of Davis who had a crush on Kari and didn't bother hiding that fact.

"T.K! Kari!" called a girl's voice.

The two turned in unison to see a lavender haired girl with large round glasses come bounding toward them with a small boy with short brown hair. This was Miyako "Yolei" Inoue and Iori "Cody" Hida. They lived in the same apartment building as T.K. and his mother. Yolei was wearing jeans, and a green shirt. Cody wore a cream colored shirt and brown shorts and shoes.

"Hey guys!" Kari smiled.

"Why didn't you wait for us T.K?" Cody asked.

T.K. shrugged. "I went out for a walk and ran into Kari."

Cody didn't need any further explanation. He wasn't one to prod.

"Hey there!"

This time it was Sora. She no longer wore her lucky blue hat, letting her red hair flare out around her head like a halo. She was wearing a pink shirt and red skirt.

"Where's Matt?" T.K. called.

Sora gave an exaggerated sigh. "Where else? Band practice. He said he'd catch up in a few."

"You're too easy on him Sora," Kari scoffed teasingly. "If he was my boyfriend, he'd be with me and not his stupid band."

Sora laughed. "He means well."

Matt and Sora had started going out sometime after Christmas that past year.

"How is the flower shop?" Yolei asked to change the topic.

"It's the same as ever," Sora smiled. "Mom said she could handle it by herself today. That way I could come and join you guys."

"That's good to hear," a voice said as two arms suddenly held Sora from behind in an embrace.

Matt had joined them unobserved while they were all talking. His hair was styled differently then it had been three years ago and instead of it spiked up, it was cut short in the back with long sweeping bangs. He was wearing a black button up shirt, slacks and shoes. He gave Sora a quick peck on the cheek before releasing her.

"Common Matt!" Tai's voice sounded out from behind T.K, Kari, Yolei and Cody. "I just ate!"

Izzi was with him. Tai was the same as ever minus the goggles and blue headband. He wore a navy blue T and tan shorts. Izzi had had his hair cut short and kept it that way when he had entered high school. Now he wore tan pants, a orange shirt with blue horizontal stripes and a green shirt left unbuttoned over it.

Matt and Sora just ignored Tai and gave each other another quick kiss.

"Where are the others?" Tai asked, ignoring them right back.

"Well I know Joe had a test this morning and will pick up Mimi from the airport when he's done," Sora mused.

Mimi had moved to New York shortly after their first DigiDestined reunion three years ago, but she had always made the long flight back just for this day. She had gone through many fashion changes in the last year alone, but currently she was keeping her hair in its natural manner and wearing less pink. Last time anyone had seen her it was during Christmas and she had been wearing green.

Joe was going to medical school to become a doctor and his knowledge in the subject had been more then useful within the past year when he had been available. He had grown out his dark blue hair to shoulder length, but other than that he was still good old reliable Joe; tall, lanky, and as cautious as ever.

"How about Davis and Ken?" Izzi asked.

T.K. shrugged.

"Who knows? Davis probably slept in again and Ken does live all the way in Tamachi. He's probably on the train right now."

"Correction," said a soft voice. "He's right here."

Ken Ichijoji smiled as he joined the group. It was hard for everyone to believe that not even a year ago he had been the evil Digimon Emperor. Ken was wearing tan slacks, a cream colored shirt, and his usual black shoes. His eyes were indigo and his hair was raven colored and cut in a similar fashion to Kari's.

"Hey! Don't start without me!" called a loud voice.

Davis Motomiya. Who else?

"It's about time Davis!" Tai called out. "We were about to send out a search party!"

Davis was wearing a navy blue shirt that had a single white stripe with a blue vest over it, brown shorts, and on his head sat the pair of goggles that Tai had given him on his first time to the Digital world after his had broken.

"Really?" he said incredulously.

"No silly," Kari laughed. "You're not that late. Ken just arrived as well."

"Great! Hey wait, where's Mimi and Joe?"

Before anyone could reply Mimi's shrill voice called out over to them.

"Sorry we're late! I ran into some good friends and asked them to join us!"

Mimi was wearing her long brown hair un-died and pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing stylish jeans, a green and pink patterned tank top, and dark navy blue flats. Joe was right behind her, his dark blue hair long stopping just above his shoulders. He was wearing tan slacks, a navy blue button up shirt and black shoes. Two others were following them; both blond and blue eyed, but didn't look as if they were related. Davis was the first to recognize them.

"Hey! It's Michael and Willace!"

Michael was Mimi's friend from New York. Everyone had met Michael in passing, but only Davis and Mimi knew that he was the son of a famous western movie star. His hair was long like Joe's but was a little curly at its ends. He wore a green and yellow shirt, jeans and a pair of red and brown sneakers.

Willace lived in New York as well, but he was originally from Colorado. He is the only DigiDestined that they know of that was given twin Digimon partners. He was wearing a white long sleeved shirt under a maroon shirt he wore unbuttoned, grey shorts, and maroon and grey tennis shoes.

"Willace?" Ken repeated puzzled. Unlike the other DigiDestined he'd never heard of Willace.

"Oh! Sorry Ken," Yolei gasped. "You don't know about him do you? We met him back when you were still the Digimon Emperor."

Kari picked up the story from there.

"T.K. and I were in New York visiting Mimi when I sensed a crying Digimon nearby. We found Willace in the middle of a fight between two of his own Digimon. He ran when he saw us so we called Davis telling him to come to America with Cody and Yolei. They met Willace hitchhiking while we where taking the train. I'm sure he'll tell you the full story later."

"Yeah," Davis smiled. "We've become good friends. He did say he'd get in touch if he ever came to Japan. Looks like Mimi took him up on his offer."

When the four newcomers finally join the others, introductions were made for Willace who had only ever met Kari, T.K, Davis, Cody and Yolei. Now everyone was accounted for. Davis had a feeling that this was going to be an eventful reunion.

Digimon Tamers

This next reality is a little different then the worlds of the other DigiDestined. Digimon had been nothing but a TV show, trading card game and a video game series until a few months ago when they became real and found a way to enter the human world. The few Digimon that found human partners referred to them as their Tamers, not DigiDestined.

One Tamer, Takato Matsuki, was hurriedly changing into his usual blue pull over and grey slacks. He was a special kid. He had created his own Digimon and somehow his creation had come to life. After meeting other children who had Digimon partners of their own they fought together to save their world from rouge Digimon and a computer program that had gone out of control. In the end the Digimon had to return to their own world, but Takato had found a portal last week where his Digimon used to stay.

He had taken too long helping his parents in their bakery and now he was going to pay for it. He was supposed to be joining his fellow Tamers at the park where his Digimon partner had once stayed since he was too big to stay at his parent's house and bakery. Today was the day the Tamers were going to attempt to return to the Digital World to see their Digimon partners.

"Oh man! Rika is gonna kill me!" Takato said as he snapped his round yellow goggles on over his messy brown hair.

He pulled his bike out of the side yard and peddled as fast as he could. He could only imagine Rika Nonaka's scowl. The redhead didn't take too lightly to waiting. Sure enough, when he finally arrived Rika was already in a fowl mood. She wore her usual yellow collared, light blue-sleeved, white shirt with a blue heart on the front. It once was a broken heart, but her mother had bought her a new T-shirt that matched hers with a whole heart. She wore jeans, red sweatbands on her wrists, red shoes and a metal studded brown belt. She was famously known as the Digimon Queen in the trading card game tournament world. She had never lost a game to anyone but one person.

Ryo Akiyama.

If Rika was the Digimon Queen, he was the infamous Digimon King. Ryo had won every card game tournament that had earned him the title of King before his disappearance one year ago. He was the first of the Tamers to gain a Digimon partner and had gone to the Digital world but no one, not even Ryo himself, knew how it happened. He had disappeared the day he defeated Rika in her first tournament but no one had seen him until Takato, Rika and the other Tamers had made it to the Digital world themselves almost one year later.

Ryo waved as Takato pulled up to where everyone else's bikes were. He was wearing his Tamers outfit. Takato had always thought he was really cool. He was wearing brown pants with a dark grey cover apron with zipper and snap pockets, a grey long sleeved shirt with the left sleeve cut off at the elbow, shoulder armor on his right, tan gloves and a red bandana around his neck. He had blue eyes and his brown hair was spiked up in a wavy fashion.

"You're late goggle head!" Rika growled.

"Give him a break Rika," a raven-haired boy with blue eyes sighed.

This was Henry Wong. He wore brown pants, a navy shirt, orange vest, grey sweatbands on his wrists, and grey and yellow shoes. He was holding his 5-year old sister, Suzie, by the hand. She had brown hair and eyes and wore a pink Chinese collared shirt over a white T, deep red shorts and yellow sneakers.

"It's about time!" one of Takato's oldest friends sighed.

Kazu Shioda had spiked up brown hair and brown eyes. He wore a dark blue visor, dark blue shirt with a yellow cross on the front, brown sweatbands on his wrists, tan slacks and grey-blue sneakers. He was standing next to another old friend of Takato's, a boy with black hair and grey eyes. Kenta Kitagawa wore glasses, an orange T-shirt under a brown unbuttoned shirt, brown slacks, and grey shoes.

"Hey Takato!"

Takato blushed. He hadn't seen Jeri Katou standing behind Rika. She had dark red hair, lavender eyes, and wore a simple green dress over a creamy yellow polo. For once she was without her sock puppet, but Takato didn't really notice. She probably had it in her bag anyway.

"Hen-wee," Suzie pouted. "Let's go! I wanna see Lopmon!"

"Yeah!" two voices chorused.

Two little kids around Suzie's age were sitting just out of Takato's sight behind Jeri. One was a little boy, Mako, around five with brown hair and eyes. He wore an orange zip up jacket and blue jeans. His sister, Ai, was a year older with the same brown eyes and her hair was pulled into two pigtails. She wore a pink zip up jacket and a red skirt.

"Oh hey Mako. Ai," Takato greeted. "Is Jeri babysitting you?"

The brother and sister nodded. They were the only ones who shared a Digimon partner.

Out of the corner of his eye, Takato noticed Henry frown. Henry had been greatly distressed when Suzie had become a Tamer and now kids her age had also been given a Digimon partner and wanted to go the Digital world. It was dangerous enough without having little kids to look after. Jeri had lost her own Digimon partner the last time they were there, but she still had her digivice.

"Well everyone is accounted for," Rika huffed. "Now show us where you found this portal Takato!"

"Now wait a minute!" Henry said. "Say we go through this portal, how are we going to get back?"

Rika paused. Henry had a point. As much as she wanted to see her Digimon partner she didn't want to be stuck in the Digital world. Ryo had been stuck there for an entire year before they had come along and brought him back with them. If he hadn't found a way back without outside help how could they hope do so now? They had told none of their parents what they were up to and Henry's dad had been key to their return.

So now the question on everyone's mind was "What now?"

Digimon Frontier

In this final reality there is no knowledge of Digimon. No one other then six special kids and a bunch of confused others who had hopped on a special train that somehow took them to the Digital world. Most of the children were sent right back and hardly knew that Digimon even existed and simply marked off their trip as a strange dream. The six that did stay didn't have a Digimon partner like the other children from the other realities. That is because they didn't need a Digimon partner. They themselves _became_ part Digimon. Or at least they had been when they were infused with six of the ten legendary Digimon warriors' spirits. Now that they were back in their own world where they were fully human again. It had been almost one year since all these children had received a mysterious call from the Digital world telling them to go the Shibuya train station and board the Trailmon that took them to the Digital world. It was these six who had been chosen by the legendary warriors and chose to stay and fight the battle against the evil that threatened to take over the Digital world.

One of these six DigiDestined, Takuya Kanbara, was looking uneasily at the clock on the wall. He was sitting in his doctor's office with his mother waiting to hear the results of some medical tests they had run over the previous two weeks. His mother was fidgeting in her seat, worrying. Takuya's mind was elsewhere. Today was his friend and fellow DigiDestined, Tomoki "Tommy" Himi's, birthday and because of this appointment he was going to be late to the party. The other four DigiDestined were going to be there too.

Finally the doctor came in but his face was grim.

'_Uh-oh_,' thought Takuya. '_No good news comes from a doctor making that kind of face_.'

His mother's head shot up and despair immediately set in.

"Well?" she asked breathlessly.

"I'm sorry ma'am," he sighed. "Our tests came back positive. Your son has lung cancer and… I'm afraid it's terminal. If we had found out about it sooner something might have been done, but the tumor is just too large now and spread out. We can go ahead and give him chemotherapy and see if it helps, but I'm afraid that there isn't much hope."

Takuya was shocked. He'd always been perfectly healthy until a few months ago when he'd started have chest pains and some trouble breathing after playing soccer, but he'd never have thought it would have to do with cancer. It just didn't seem possible. How could he have an advanced case of cancer when he'd shown no signs until now?

"I don't care," his mother said gruffly. "I'll take what I can. Little hope is better then no hope at all. What are the symptoms?"

The doctor sighed and began rattling off a list of conditions.

"Shortness of breath, chronic coughing, coughing up blood, wheezing, chest pain, weight loss, hoarse voice, and difficulty swallowing.

Takuya felt numb. Within the last week he had had all those symptoms except for the coughing up blood part, but it was probably only a matter of time before that started too.

"How long?" he asked. "You said it was terminal. How long to I have to live?"

The doctor gave him a long calculated glance.

"…At the rate your tumor has been growing? …Two years max. And that's without the chemo."

Takuya nodded. He felt numb. His mother squeezed his hand and then returned to the doctor.

"How soon can we begin the chemotherapy?"

The doctor sighed before turning to his computer.

"At least a week. I'll make the arrangements for the next weekend and you can bring Takuya to the main hospital in Shibuya," he said, handing her the folder that held Takuya's records and test results.

"Thank you doctor," she smiled sadly, taking the folder and handing it to Takuya.

Takuya nodded his thanks before following his mother out of the hospital. When they got back to the car he reached in the back, grabbed his bag, stuffed the medical folder in it and took off down the street.

"Takuya?" his mother yelled after him. "Where are you going?"

"To Tommy's birthday party!" he yelled over his shoulder. "I'm late!"

"Takuya! Please come back! We need to talk about your-!"

"I'll be fine Mom! See you later!"

That was the last thing he wanted. Takuya didn't want to think about the cancer right now. He just couldn't wrap his mind around it. A part of him had already accepted that he might not live to see his high school years, but the other half of him was determined to live that remaining time to the fullest. And right now he needed to be with his friends. This terminal lung cancer thing was too depressing.

As he raced for the park his chest began to hurt so he stopped to breath. His eye caught his reflection in one of the corner mirrors that were placed on specific corners to help drivers see if there was any traffic or pedestrians coming around one of their blind spots on the corner.

Takuya was wearing his yellow shirt with the black spiked swirl design on the front under a red short sleeved button up, grey cargo pants, red and yellow sneakers, and square goggles over his favorite olive green hat that was worn backwards like all the cool kids. But despite the colorful clothes and tan skin he saw how pale and sick he looked. How could he face his friends like this when he looked like such a wreck?

Tommy Himi was worried. In his big orange hat, he looked even smaller then he really was. He wore white T-shirt, white sneakers with green laces, heels and tips, and yellow/tan pants with their suspenders hanging limp around his legs. His party had started an hour ago and everyone he had invited was here but Takuya. Takuya was like an older brother to Tommy.

He looked around at the other party guests and saw them all having fun, but he wasn't. How could he when one of his closest friends wasn't there? Tommy wasn't the only one who was worried though.

Koji Minamoto, a boy with blue eyes and long raven hair tied back in a ponytail under a navy blue bandana with grey slash stripes, was constantly looking towards the park entrance. He wore a yellow T under a blue sweatshirt, grey pants and white shoes with blue stripes.

Koji's twin brother, Koichi Kimura, could feel his anxiety coming off of him in waves. Koichi had shorter hair then his brother, but they had the same face, eyes and hair color. He wore a red long sleeved shirt under a short-sleeved green button-up one, tan pants and green sneakers. He didn't know Takuya as well as his twin, but he knew Takuya enough to know that he'd never been this late to anything before. He could see how worried little Tommy was too.

A pretty blond Italian girl with blue eyes approached them. She wore a blue and white striped shirt that stopped above her naval under a purple vest, a matching purple hat with two points that made it look like she had cat ears, a matching purple skirt, and tall purple socks in white and purple shoes.

The twins eyed her nervously. She looked ticked.

"Where is that stupid Takuya?" she huffed. "Poor Tommy has been waiting for this party and isn't having any fun all because he isn't here."

"Chill Zoe," said a big slightly overweight boy with brown hair and eyes in a blue jumpsuit with yellow cuffs and pockets. "This is Takuya we're talking about. He probably lost track of time and is on his way right now."

These were the last two DigiDestined: Izumi "Zoe" Orimoto and Junpei "J.P." Shibayama.

"I'm sure J.P. is right," Koichi said gently. "He wouldn't want to disappoint Tommy. They're practically brothers."

Koji nodded.

"He'll be here," Tommy's little voice said.

Tommy had come up to them while they had been talking. He had seen them gather while the other partygoers played and laughed oblivious to the serious conversation. The four looked away from him guiltily. Even though Tommy was one of them, he was the youngest and still just a little kid. He was nine years old today and everyone else in their group was twelve except for J.P. who was thirteen.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late!" they heard a voice call out.

Tommy's face lit up at once.

"Takuya!"

Takuya was hurrying towards the group while shrugging his bang off his shoulder.

"Hey buddy! Sorry I'm so late. I had trouble wrapping your present and then I missed my train and the next one was delayed and yada yada yada… Happy birthday!"

Takuya handed Tommy a rather sloppily wrapped present with rather lumpy sides, but Tommy didn't seem to care. He tore apart the wrappings and gasped. Inside was a whistle, a cool pair of gloves and matching sweatshirt, and a soccer ball with his favorite player, Kazuyoshi Miura's autograph on it. He was speechless.

"Oh wow," he gasped, unable to come up with anything else.

Takuya grinned. The whistle and clothes were something his mom had thought would make a good gift and he'd gotten lucky when he had won that soccer ball for Tommy. Takuya had entered a soccer camp competition and worked hard to win that for his friend because he knew how big of a Miura fan Tommy was. If Takuya was good at anything it was soccer. It was his favorite sport… that he may never be able to play again because of the cancer…

The depressing thought had entered his mind before Takuya could stop it. His chest hurt just thinking about it.

"Thanks Takuya!" Tommy beamed.

Takuya quickly snapped out of his depressing mood, but not before Koji noticed. Something wasn't right.

"Are you alright Takuya?" Koji asked.

Everyone looked at him, confused by his question.

"Yeah," Takuya shrugged. "Just a little tired from running all the way over here." It wasn't a complete lie, Takuya reasoned, but it wasn't the complete truth either.

Koji eyed him suspiciously, but let the matter drop. If Takuya wanted to talk about it, he'd tell Koji when he was ready. Until then, Koji decided to keep and eye on his best friend.

"So what does the little man wanna do?" Takuya asked Tommy, ignoring Koji's critical gaze.

"How about soccer!" Tommy asked enthusiastically, setting aside his new prized ball and picking up his old beat up one.

"Sound good to me!" Takuya grinned.

"But I'm wearing a skirt!" Zoe complained.

"And I hate running," J.P. sighed.

"That's never stopped you guys before," Koji lightly pointed out, a small smile spreading across his face.

That seemed to settle the matter. All the other kids joined in and soon they had an epic soccer game in the works with cones set up as the goal posts.

Tommy grinned. Despite Takuya being late, he was having an awesome birthday.


	2. Chapter 2

This is the second chapter of the original version of the Ultimate Gathering of the DigiDestined. Again, there are only 6 of these chapters and most of the story line is the same. The only significant difference in these chapters is that the Adventure 01 cast is in it. Enjoy.

I DO NOT OWN DIGIMON ADVENTURE, 02, TAMERS, FRONTIER OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.

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Chapter 2: The Storm and A Shocking Meeting

The Digital World Location: The Celestial Digimon's Domain

"We need the DigiDestined," said a white tiger creature with purple stripes and a metal facemask.

"I agree with Baihumon," agreed Azulongmon, a blue dragon Digimon with a long snake-like body decorated with silver chains.

A red flaming bird Digimon shook his head.

"No offense Baihumon, but what use are those children going to be?"

"Now Zhuqiaomon," Azulongmon sighed. You know that these mere children have proven themselves. Our counter parts in the other worlds have seen them themselves."

The fourth and final member of the group, Ebonwumon, a giant two headed turtle with a tree growing out of his back, grumbled to himself. He was the oldest of the Celestial Digimon and didn't like the idea of trusting the fate of all existing worlds to a bunch of children.

"Zhuqiaomon is right to be cautions," he spoke in his Irish brogue.

The phoenix Digimon puffed out his chest with pride.

"But," the ancient Digimon rasped, "Azulongmon and Baihumon are right about the children. The question is which group do we send to fight?"

Zhuqiaomon glowered at the tiger Digimon who was now beginning to look a little too smug for his liking. Ebonwumon didn't like it either.

"Don't get cocky youngster," he reproached. "As the youngest of us four I suggest you mind your manners around your elders."

"Let us not bicker," Azulongmon sighed. "There are far greater things at state then pride."

"Exactly," Zhuqiaomon huffed. "Now back to Ebonwumon's question. Who do we send? This is not an enemy to be taken lightly."

It was quiet for a long time before they all came to the same conclusion.

"All of them."

Digimon Adventure

Tai was getting a little annoyed. Everyone was finally together but they were all depressed.

"Common guys!" he said. "It's been one whole year and we're finally together as a team again!"

Some attempted a smile like Mimi and Joe, but others like Sora and Matt still looked gloomy.

"It's true we're together Tai," Matt said, "But we're missing the other half of the team, the Digimon."

Tai sighed. He knew exactly what Matt was talking about. He'd give anything to see his partner, a yellow T-rex dinosaur type Digimon with green eyes called Agumon.

"I know what you mean Matt, but that's why we're all here. To remember all the good times we had with them," Tai said sympathetically.

"And the bad," Kari said sadly.

"How depressing," Mimi murmured.

"Common guys!" Tai cried. "This time last year we were kicking Myotismon's butt!"

"Gatomon Digivolved to Angewomon for the first time," Kari smiled slightly. "And pierced him with her arrow."

"Yeah!" Tai grinned. "And when he came back for more Agumon and Gabumon Digivolved to their mega forms for the first time and beat that chump!"

Everyone grinned at the memory.

"He sure wasn't easy to beat," Izzi said. "It took all of us."

"And together we won every time," Sora agreed.

Everyone was finally having the reunion that they had come for, reminiscing their adventures and near defeats, but as they were talking a heavy storm system suddenly appeared out of nowhere and cast a dark shadow on everyone's parade.

"Well that's weird," Izzi frowned. "The weather man never said anything about rain."

"Maybe Myotismon is back from the grave and is throwing up his old fog bank again," Sora said sarcastically.

"Don't even joke," Joe moaned.

There was a bright flash of lightening and the next thing the eight children knew, they were falling.

'_Talk about déjà vu_,' Tai thought as he fell head over heels downwards before he lost consciousness…

Digimon Adventure 02

Davis was lying on his side at the edge of the picnic blanket that they had laid out. He was staring off across the group at Kari. He'd had a crush on her ever since he'd first laid eyes on her, but he knew that there was no way that she liked him back in the same way. She had T.K.

Davis had been jealous of the blue-eyed blond and had taken an instant disliking to him the moment he realized that he and Kari had a past. His dream girl belonged with someone else. He'd been childish, calling him T.O, T.J, anything but T.K. and jumped irrationally into any argument with him, but lately he had come to terms with their relationship. He'd started calling him by name and had actually started to become good friends with the guy… but he didn't have to like it.

Yolei had brought food from her family's convenience store and everyone else had brought something to add to the makeshift potluck. They were all laughing and catching each other up on recent events, school and reminiscing memories.

Only Davis and Tai seemed to be out of it. They were to first to see the slowly encroaching clouds on the horizon.

"What's wrong Tai?" Izzi asked, when he realized that his comment for Tai had gone ignored.

"Nothing," Tai frowned, contradicting his own words. "But do you remember the weatherman mentioning anything about rain today?"

"Hmm… no I don't. Let me check," Izzi said.

As always, Izzi had his laptop computer with him and instantly began clicking away. The few who had heard the exchange watched with very little interest, and quickly went back to conversing with the others who hadn't heard.

Izzi made a face after a moment of searching. He'd pulled up a satellite image, but there was no sign of the storm system that was now hovering overhead or any heavy cloud cover in the area for that matter.

Thunder rumbled in the sky and at last everyone else was awear that their plans may be ruined. There was a sudden flash of lightening and the ground seemed to split apart and swallow them all.

Davis's last logical thought was to look for Kari and, sure enough, he found her in T.K.'s arms as they fell together. The old Davis would have been petty enough to wish that it were his arms she was in, but this Davis was just glad that she wasn't alone. T.K. would look after her. Or at least that's what Davis believed just before he fell unconscious…

Digimon Tamers

Henry watched as Rika warred within herself. She knew that he was right, but sometimes the redhead was too proud for her own good.

"I don't think it's a good idea to go after all," he said finally to break the silence.

Everyone looked at him shocked. Henry shrugged. Someone had to say it. Suzie removed her hand from his with a hurt look on her face.

"But Hen-wee," she pouted. "I wanna see Lopmon. Don't you wanna see Te-wee-ermon?"

Henry sighed.

"I just don't think it's safe for us to go right now. Our parents don't know about this and remember the last time we all disappeared to the Digital world?"

Guilty faces met his all around. They remembered. It had been tough leaving their parents behind, some without any more warning then a note after they'd already left. Even the parents who had known didn't want them to go.

"Henry's right," Ryo said unexpectedly. "I was trapped there for a year, but I don't even remember how I got there or what happened before I met Cyberdramon. My whole experience over there is a huge blur before I met you guys. I say we wait. Maybe the Digimon can come back on their own."

"But," Suzie, Mako, and Ai spluttered. "We wanna see them now!"

"Uh guys?" Kenta squeaked while tugging on Kazu's sleeve.

"What Kenta?" Kazu huffed.

Kenta pointed upwards drawing everyone's attention to the sky. Dark clouds were circling overhead and the crackling of lightening could now be heard.

"When did that happen?" Jeri whispered. "It was clear only five minutes ago."

"Kids!" a man's voice called out.

"Dad?" Henry and Suzie gasped, startled.

Janyu Wong had just ran from the laboratory he worked at. A colleague of his, who headed an organization known as Hypnos, told him that there was a weird anomaly happening at a children's park. Somehow he had instinctively known that his kids were there and had rushed to get them. He had nearly lost them when they had gone to the Digital world only a few weeks ago. Something told him he had to go to them and stop them from going again.

It was then that the ground decided to quake. Suzie screamed and hugged her brother as tightly as she could. Henry held her close, determined to keep her safe from whatever was happening.

Takato glanced towards the old empty storage building in the park where his Digimon partner had once stayed. A light was glowing from within, presumably from the hole he'd discovered the portal in. As if drawn to it, Takato ran towards the light.

Henry, alarmed and concerned for his friend, picked Suzie up and chased after Takato with the others right behind him. He heard his dad call out helplessly, too far away to stop them, but Henry knew that there was no turning back. They were going to the Digital world again and this time they didn't have a choice. Henry knew this even as the light flashed out of the hole in the ground and all the Tamers fell into the widening hole in the earth. The only thing that Henry knew that he could do in that moment was hold his sister as closely and as tightly as possible so that wherever they ended he could look after her…

Digimon Frontier

Tommy watched his party guests leave one by one and thanked them for coming. His brother, Yutaka, was helping their parents move all his presents to the van, but Tommy noticed how he eyed his remain friends suspiciously. Tommy sighed. Yutaka had a very gruff disposition when it can to Tommy and had viewed his little brother as spoiled and naive. Tommy had never really appreciated how his older brother looked out for him until he went to the Digital world and met Takuya and the others.

What was unsettling his brother at the moment was how much older Takuya and the others were compared to the other kids Tommy had invited to the party and Tommy was sadly awear of this. He'd tried to explain it to him, but there was no real way to clear up how he knew the others without telling him about the Digital world and that was something that he and the other DigiDestined had agreed never to do.

"You ok Tommy?" Takuya asked.

"Yeah," Tommy smiled sadly.

Koji joined Takuya and saw where Tommy's thoughts were directed.

"Something to do with your brother?" Koji asked a little too bluntly, earning him an elbow in the ribs from Takuya. "Oww!"

"Yeah," Tommy sighed.

J.P, Zoe, and Koichi had joined them as well.

"What's the matter?" J.P. asked.

"He doesn't approve of me being friends with you guys," Tommy explained. "He just doesn't understand and I don't think I can get him to without telling him about how we all met in the Digital world."

Takuya gave him a sympathetic pat on the back.

"He'll come around. He just doesn't know us and he's only looking after you. I know how he feels. Or have you forgotten that I have a little brother too?"

Tommy smiled. He liked Takuya. He was his idol and as far as he was concerned, Takuya was his older brother as well.

"Tommy!" Yutaka called out.

"Yeah?" Tommy answered."

"It's time to go!"

Tommy sighed. Sometimes it sucked to be the little kid.

"Thanks for coming you guys!" he smiled at his friends.

"Anytime buddy!" Takuya grinned, giving him the thumbs up.

"This coming from the guy who was late," Zoe smirked.

Koji and Koichi coughed behind their hands and J.P. simply chuckled.

A sudden crackle of thunder rumbling overhead made them all look up. It had been sunny only seconds ago, but now everything was dark and eerie. Zoe rubbed the goose bumps on her arms. Something didn't feel right. Everything was suddenly still.

Tommy's parents became uneasy and called their son over to them, but Tommy wouldn't move. Yutaka had the urge to reach out and grab his brother, but he was as frozen as he was. There was a tension in the air and it felt that if you broke that tension by moving everything would fall apart.

Takuya could feel his heart beating loudly in his chest, his lungs breath in and exhale the air, but most of all he could suddenly feel the tumor. It felt heavy and as if it was expanding. He almost stopped breathing, his chest hurt so badly.

Then a bolt of lightening split the air with a loud deafening crack and the ground seemed to open up and swallow all six of them in an instant. Yutaka and his parents were helpless as Tommy suddenly disappeared from their sights with the other five children. One minute they were there standing there, up looking at the storm, and the next they were gone and there was not a single cloud in the sky…

The Digital World Location: Unknown Bare Cave Chamber

Young Tai woke blearily and nearly cried out with shock and delight. Staring straight down at him were a pair of great green eyes that belonged to none other then his Digimon partner Agumon.

"Are you ok Tai?" the yellow dinosaur asked.

"Agumon…" Tai gasped, reaching out to touch him with his hand. "You're real right? I'm not dreaming?"

"I don't think so," Agumon gave a pointy toothed grin, "but you did hit your head pretty hard on your landing."

Tai sat up slowly and rubbed the back of his head. Agumon was right. It felt pretty soar.

"Where are we?" Tai asked, looking around and realizing that he wasn't the only one to be reunited with his Digimon partner.

Kari was not too far away with Gatomon, a white cat Digimon with blue eyes, purple tipped ears, striped tail with a golden tail ring, and green gloves on her two front paws with orange stripes. Izzi had his laptop open on his lap and was animatedly talking to his partner Tentomon, a red insect Digimon that looked like a cross between a beetle and fly with his round red shell with grey spiked spots and huge green eyes and yellow antenna. Joe was complaining to Gomamon, a cute white seal looking Digimon with purple markings, orange-red tuft of hair on the top of his head and sea blue-green eyes.

Matt was leaning against the wall with T.K. and their Digimon, Gabumon and Patamon respectively. Gabumon was a canine type Digimon with red eyes, yellow skin and tail, with a blue and purple marking on his stomach. He had a horn protruding from his forehead and a light grey fur overcoat with blue stripes that covered his face and draped down his back. Patamon was like a hamster mixed with a bat. He had blue eyes and a round body with a creamy colored underbelly and an orange backside. His wings seemed to be embedded behind his head where his neck would be if he had one.

Mimi's Digimon, Palmon, was a plant Digimon with green eyes and a body that looked like Agumon's. Her legs were essentially like roots and her two arms like muscled plant leaves with vines for fingers. There was a pink flower on top of her head like hair. The two of them seemed happy and were catching each other up. Sora was doing the same with Biyomon, a pink bird Digimon with blue tipped tail feathers and bright blue eyes.

"I don't know Tai," Agumon admitted. "We fell down here just before you all did. All I know is, is that we're here now for some reason and you just came falling from the sky. It was like the first time I met you as Koromon."

There are five forms or levels for a Digimon: Baby, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega. Agumon and all the other Digimon, but Gatomon, was at their rookie level. (Gatomon was a champion level Digimon.) Koromon was Agumon's In-Training form, which was basically a tiny pink head with big eyes, mouth and long thin streaming ears.

"We fell from the sky huh," Tia said as he looked up at the high ceiling of the cave.

"Yup," Agumon agreed.

Izzi approached the two while they we talking.

"Hey Tai," he said. "I've just come to the conclusion that there is no way out of this chamber."

"What?" Tai gasped, catching everyone's attention. "Are you sure?"

"Well… There is one possible way out, but unless someone else comes along and helps us out there is no way for us to use it. See that opening over there?" He asked, pointing high up the opposite wall.

Tai pulled out his handy telescope and scanned the surface of the wall. He could just make out the shadow of a possible passage way.

"Wow Izzi," Tai whistled. "How'd you see that?"

"I didn't," he admitted. "Tentomon did."

"Well can't we just bust out?" Matt asked.

"We could if our Digimon could Digivolve," Izzi sighed. "Tentomon's been trying but he can't seem to Digivolve."

Tai looked at Agumon and pulled out his digivice. It flashed, but Agumon didn't become enveloped in the usual glowing light that happens when a Digimon digivolves.

"I don't suppose we have a rope on hand for one of the flying Digimon to take up there for us," Sora sighed. No one would have thought to bring rope to the reunion anyway.

"Well can't the flying Digimon go up and try to find help?" Joe suggested.

"No," Izzi disagreed. "I've used my laptop to get into this world's system-"

"What?" Tai interrupted. "What system?"

Izzi pointed to the wall he and Tentomon had been sitting by earlier where there was a clearly visible outlet and internet port.

"You gotta love the Digital world," Mimi sighed. "Bunch of outlets everywhere for no reason."

Izzi actually cracked a smile. "Anyway, I entered the system and found out that it's a maze out there. This is merely one tiny room in a great labyrinth of rooms, passageways and tunnels."

"Well if you have a map then couldn't you just guide whoever goes right back?"

"I could," Izzi agreed," If there wasn't electronic interference coming from the chamber next to us on the other side of that opening."

Everyone looked around. Things seemed to go from bad to worse. Who was going to find them down there when no one knew where they were?

The Digital World Location: Unknown Cave Tunnel

Davis groaned. He felt as if he'd had the stuffing knocked out of him.

"Hey Davis! You up yet?" a familiar yet annoying voice nagged.

"Veemon?" Davis moaned.

"Yup!" the cheerful voice enthused.

Davis opened his eyes and found himself staring right back at his Digimon partner. Veemon was a blue Digimon that looked like a cross between a rabbit and a dinosaur Digimon like Agumon. He was blue with a yellow V marking between his red eyes and a yellow triangle under the left corners of his eyes. Starting from his nose and mouth he had a white underbelly.

"Veemon!" Davis cried out with joy. "It's been a while!"

"Too long Davis," Veemon agreed. "You need to visit more often."

Davis grinned. Same old Veemon. He looked around and realized he was alone. That wasn't good. Nothing ever was when everyone was separated.

"Have you seen any of the others?" Davis asked.

"Nope," Veemon frowned, which was rare for him. "One minute I'm playing soccer at the Primary Village with Wormmon and Patamon and the new baby Digimon when a weird storm hits and the next thing I know I'm here and you fall out of the ceiling."

"A storm hit you guys too?" Davis mused. "If only Izzi were here. He'd have a theory."

"Izzi!" a distressed voice called out.

"Yeah, Izzi," Davis repeated and then realized that it wasn't Veemon who'd said it. "Let's go Veemon!"

"Right behind ya Davis!" Veemon said cheerily as he raced after Davis down the tunnel they were in, in the direction of the voice.

They came to a room where tall bulky contraptions that looked like old computer systems and wires lined the rocky walls of the cave. Electrical currents caused sparks and arcs to spurt around the few that had been torn off the walls by something crashing into them. A moan sounded from the far end of the room where there was the most damage.

"Izzi!" the voice cried again only this time Davis and Veemon recognized it as Tentomon's voice.

They rushed over the wreckage and found Izzi lying unconscious in a tangle of wires and circuitry. Every short hair on his head stood up from the undoubted electric shock he had received when he got tangled in the wires. Tentomon spotted them and cried out in relief.

"Davis! You have to help him! He just fell out of the ceiling and ending up pulling down all these cables with him. I've told him not to move because every time he does he gets shocked."

"All right Tentomon," Davis said, trying to sooth the frantic Digimon. "Easy. All we have to do is cut the power. Then we can move Izzi out without worrying about electrocuting him."

But that was easier said then done. Davis was no good with computers and the best person to walk him through it was tangled in the very mess he was trying to fix! Despite that Davis looked for a solution anyway, moving around the walls of the room praying that there was a big off switch somewhere. Veemon helped too while Tentomon remained with Izzi so that he could prevent him from moving and causing anymore harm to himself.

Davis was on the point of giving up when he looked behind one of the computer banks and ran into a boy, but not one that he knew. He looked as if he had just woken up and sure looked confused to see Davis.

"Who are you," the boy asked, straightening the visor he was wearing.

"Actually I was just going to ask you the same question," Davis said. "I'm Davis."

He held out his hand and the boy took it.

"Kazu," he grinned. "I was beginning to think I was alone here."

"Davis?" Veemon's voice echoed around the room. "Who are you talking to?"

Davis was helping Kazu get out from behind the bulky box as Veemon came to meet him.

"Davis, who's that?" he asked.

"Kazu," Davis grunted as he finally pulled Kazu out.

"Thanks," Kazu grinned. "Wow! You have a Digimon too! A Veemon!"

"Davis who is this guy?" Veemon asked.

"Dunno," Davis admitted. "Found him while I was looking for a way to turn off the power."

"Why would you want to do that?" Kazu asked.

"A friend of ours is stuck in the wires and we can't move him until we turn off the power source so that he won't get electrocuted."

Kazu thought for a moment. He wasn't too good with computers either, but he knew that most systems and an emergency kill switch.

"Wait," Davis said, looking at Kazu. "You said 'you have a Digimon too.' What did you mean by that? Are you saying you're a DigiDestined like I am?"

"A digi-what?" Kazu asked, confused. "No, I'm a Tamer. A Digimon Tamer. I haven't seen him in a while, but my partner is-"

"Kazu!" a robotic yet cheerful voice cried out.

The two boys and one Digimon turned to the end of the large computer room and saw a large bulky iron Digimon make its way towards them. It had a round main body with vents and pipes on his sides, a hatch on his chest, flatfooted barrel legs, and round cylinder arms, robotic hands with three fingers, and a flat helmet with antenna sticking out the back that made his head, but only two green eyes underneath gave any impression of a face.

"Guardromon!" Kazu exclaimed. "You're here!"

"Kazu!" the robot Digimon cried with delight. "You have no idea what I've been through! After I returned to the Digital world with the others everything seemed to be fine, but today there was a terrible electrical surge and beams from the core shot out at us and pulled us all into different fields. I arrived here and tried to perform a life form scan but there was electrical interference so I came to the source to shut it down and see if it enables me to perform my scan, but thank the Sovereign you're here!"

"No worries!" Kazu grinned. "I'm glad you're here too."

"Ah Kazu?" Davis said, trying to catch his attention.

"Oh yeah!" Kazu gasped. "Guardromon this is Davis and his Digimon partner Veemon. They have a friend who's in trouble and needs the power shut off as soon as possible. Can you do that bud?"

"Roger!" the robot chirped, all business now. If his Tamer wanted something done that was within his capabilities then Guardromon would do it. He stretched out his arm and tiny cables shot out and attached themselves to the nearest computer bank.

"Processing…" the Digimon hummed, and lights flashed across his eye sockets as he downloaded the data he needed.

"…Far wall third switch," he replied finally and pointed to the wall he indicated.

Davis was off in a rush, but tripped over another prone figure. At first he thought he'd run into another Digimon, but when it groaned and swore, he was sure it was human. It was another boy and as this one sat up he rubbed the back of his head and stared grumpily at Davis.

"Thanks kid," he grumbled. "The one part of my body that didn't hurt now does."

Davis gaped. The boy was big, sure, but he couldn't be that much older then he was, so what was with calling him a kid?

"Sorry about that," Davis tried to laugh it off, but that only seemed to annoy the big guy.

"Davis, whatcha doing now?" Veemon cried exasperatedly. "Do you wanna help Izzi or not?"

"Ah!" Davis panicked, suddenly jumping to his feet and rushing to the wall where he found the switch just as Guardromon said.

"Which one again?" Davis called out.

"Third," came Guardromon's monotone reply.

"Say," the new boy said joining him. "What are you doing?"

Davis flipped the switch and darkness was instant. This startled the big boy and he nearly knocked Davis down as he collided with him.

"Oww!" Davis complained after bumping his head into the wall.

"Sorry," the big boy grunted. "Didn't know that you were going to kill the power. I'm Junpei, by the way, but everyone calls me J.P."

Davis sighed. "That's ok. I didn't give any warning. Oh! And I'm Davis."

There was a thudding sound that could have been footsteps and then a bright light hit them.

"You alright Davis?" Kazu's voice asked.

The light was coming from Guardromon's headlight on his forehead. Veemon was sitting on his shoulder looking at J.P. curiously.

"Making more friends Davis?" Veemon asked.

"Oh yeah," Davis grinned. "I make 'em every where I go."

Kazu helped him up and Davis introduced J.P.

"Now lets' go help Izzi before Tentomon blows a gasket," Davis sighed.

"And that's not fun," Guardromon sighed.

"He was being sarcastic Guardromon," Kazu sighed. "It's a figure of speech."

"And you wonder why I find you humans so complex," the robot sighed.

The boys grinned.

"Oh! Hey, do you have a Digimon?" Davis suddenly asked J.P.

"Huh? What do you mean?" J.P. asked puzzled.

"He means do you have a Digimon partner," Kazu asked.

"No," J.P. shrugged. "Never had one."

"Really?" Veemon asked. "Then how come you're here in the Digital world? At least I think that's where we are."

"I don't know why I'm here. I was just at a friend's birthday party when some wacko storm came out of nowhere. Now I'm here."

"Really?" Kazu gasped. "That's what happened to me and my friends. There was a sudden freak storm and then I woke up here and Davis found me."

"Speaking of finding," Tentomon's voice cried out, "Hurry up and get over here! Izzi may be seriously hurt!"

"Geeze Tentomon! We're coming already," Davis sighed. "Man that Digimon can be annoying."

"Sounds like a real nagger," J.P. agreed.

They finally found Izzi and with the aid of Guardromon's light and strength they quickly got Izzi out from under all those wire and cables. Tentomon wasted no time trying to revive his human partner.

"Izzi! Please speak to me!"

Izzi moaned, but other than that there was no reply. He was out and the only thing that could be done was wait for him to wake…


	3. Chapter 3

This is the third chapter of the original version of the Ultimate Gathering of the DigiDestined. Again, there are only 6 of these chapters and most of the story line is the same. The only significant difference in these chapters is that the Adventure 01 cast is in it. Enjoy.

I DO NOT OWN DIGIMON ADVENTURE, 02, TAMERS, FRONTIER OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.

* * *

Chapter 3: A Blast From the Past and Cold Feet

The Digital World Location: The Computer Cavern

Izzi woke up with a huge headache. It didn't help that Tentomon was blabbering nonstop until he was reassured that Izzi was going to be fine. Izzi was relieved that he wasn't alone and was glad to see that Davis, but quite honestly he wished that Joe were there instead. Davis was too much like Tai and was often rash. He needed someone more calm and patient. A ling time ago Joe would have been the last one to turn too, but in recent years Joe had gained confidence and very useful medical knowledge, living up to his crest of Reliability. In his current condition, Izzi would have preferred to have the soon-to-be doctor with him, but he'd just have to do with Davis.

"Where are we?" Izzi asked after he was frustratingly unable to come to a conclusion on his own. This headache of his was insane!

"I was hoping you'd have an idea," Davis sighed.

'_Odd_,' Izzi thought. '_Davis seems down about something_.'

"All I know is that we're either underground or in some sort of cave," an unfamiliar voice said.

Izzi realized that Davis and their Digimon weren't the only company he had. Two other boys and a Guardromon were sitting not too far away. It was then he realized that their light source was coming from the forehead of the Digimon. The boy wearing the visor was the one who had spoken.

"And they are…?" Izzi inquired after no one bothered to introduce him to the other boys.

"Oh!" Davis gasped, realizing his error. "Izzi, this is Kazu and J.P. I found them while trying to turn off the power so that we could untangle you from those cables."

Izzi faintly recalled falling and seeing the cables on the wall. He had dragged them down with him and received a sudden shock when a few of them snapped. No wonder he didn't feel good.

"Oh… Thanks," Izzi mumbled as he tried to stand but his legs felt like jelly and he instantly fell back down.

"Hey!" Davis yelped as he caught his faint friend. "Easy, Izzi. You were electrocuted, you know."

Izzi moaned.

Introductions went around once again for Izzi's sake and after a few more minutes Izzi felt well enough to stand. Walking was another matter entirely. Kazu offered to have Guardromon carry him and Izzi found that it'd be idiocy to refuse.

He had Guardromon take him back to the computer's power switch and once the power was back on he hooked his laptop, which was amazingly still undamaged, to the mainframe and hacked his way into the system where he could access a map to find out their location. He fiddled with the systems settings and reset the power's surges so that there was no longer an excess of energy flowing through the cables.

Satisfied with his work, Izzi disconnected his computer and turned to his waiting companions.

"It's useless to remain here. Guardromon, could you run that life forms reading that you said you had attempted? You shouldn't have any electrical interference this time."

The robot Digimon obliged and ran the scan.

"There are abundant life form readings in a chamber not far from here."

Izzi pulled up the map he had downloaded from the network and hooked his computer up to the Digimon. With Guardromon's permission they synced their systems so that whatever Guardromon picked up on his scanners, Izzi's laptop would assess the information automatically preventing the need to continually hook it up to the Digimon. Now he had life form reading and not just Digivice signals.

Kazu wasn't sure he liked the computer geek messing with his Digimon partner and ordering him around, but he looked as if he knew what he was doing so Kazu remained silent. The weird redhead could be his key to finding his friends and getting out of this place.

Izzi suddenly cried out with joy.

"Hey guys! I'm getting eight digivice signals. Eight of the sixteen readings that are in that chamber have an overlapping yellow digivice signal! I think we found some of our friends."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Davis grinned. "Lets get going!"

The Digital World Location: Unknown Bare Cave Chamber

Young Izzi was confused. The electrical interference that had plagued his computer's readings had suddenly vanished, reappeared, and then vanished again. He'd had complete access to the maps that had been blocked before, but now he had access to their digivice readings. Eight yellow points winked brightly in the chamber they were in.

"Any luck Izzi?" Tai asked.

"Maybe," Izzi mused. "That electrical interference is gone now. Maybe our Digimon can Digivolve."

"Birdramon would be our best bet if we want to get out of here," Tai said, thinking realistically for once.

Sora nodded and held out her digivice. It flashed, but Biyomon didn't glow.

"Still no Digivolving for us," Sora sighed.

"Hey! Did you guys here that?" Joe's voice called out, breaking twice in the middle of his sentence.

"No," Mimi said flatly. "Maybe your just hearing things Joe."

"I am NOT hearing things!" Joe protested. "Listen!"

Everyone got quiet, straining to hear what Joe had. At first nothing happened. Then they distinctively heard voices talking, but they were too low and too far away to discern the actual words.

"Maybe it's a ghost," T.K. whispered.

"Or maybe someone's out there!" Matt exclaimed.

"Or some_thing_!" Joe cried.

"Get a grip Joe," Mimi sighed.

Suddenly the voices stopped. Everyone froze. Then Izzi's computer beeped and they all gasped, startled. Izzi stared at the screen. There were four new lights on his screen. One was yellow like theirs, one was red, one was blue and the other was orange. The dots were located just outside the chamber they were in. The orange moved towards the wall that separated its group from Izzi's and back again like it was pacing.

Izzi was about to tell Tai when the voices resumed. This time they could be pick up a few words from one voice (Izzi assumed that it was whoever the orange signature belonged to) and the others were too muffled to understand or pick out individuals. The only thing they were sure of was that all the voices were male.

"There are four of them," Izzi murmured.

"How do you know that?" Tai asked.

"I'm getting a reading on four new digivice signals. One of them has one like ours, but the other three have completely different readings," Izzi replied.

"If they have digivices then their DigiDestined like we are, right?" Matt asked.

"Most likely," Izzi nodded. "But the different readings on the other three has me baffled."

"...we get to them?" one of the voices was saying.

Another voice answered, but they still couldn't hear the actual words.

Izzi was intently watching the orange light signature. It was now stopped right by the wall just outside of the opening Tentomon had found. Izzi figured that he had to be just out of sight and that was why they could hear him.

Suddenly it wobbled.

"Whoa!"

A boy in a blue shirt and vest came tumbling backwards down the steep incline with a blue Digimon they'd never seen before. Everyone rushed to his side to make sure he was all right.

"Oww!" the boy complained. "I hit my head again."

When he opened his eyes he quickly shut them again.

"I musta gotten hit real hard! I'm seeing things," he gasped.

"How rude," Mimi huffed.

Tai chuckled at Mimi's sudden offense.

"Are you alright?" he asked stretching his hand out to help the stranger to his feet.

The boy blinked then nodded.

"I'm fine Tai," the boy said, still rubbing the back of his head.

Tai gaped. "How'd you know my name?"

"I know all your names," he said distractedly, pointing each person as he named them. "Tai, Matt, Izzi, Joe, Mimi, Sora, Kari, and T.K."

"How do you know us?" Matt asked. "Have we met before?"

"Ah…" the boy hesitated, seemingly coming to his senses. "Yeah, sort of."

"You're making things worse Davis," the boy's Digimon said. "And I don't think you hit your head enough to imagine all this cause I'm seeing it too."

"You're name's Davis?" Tai asked.

"Yeah," Davis nodded. "I guess you don't know who I am huh?"

They all shook their heads.

Davis sighed. "I'm not good at explaining this kind of thing. Heck, I don't even know what's going on."

He suddenly spotted something on the ground and moved to pick it up. It was a pair of goggles identical to the ones that Tai was wearing.

"Ah geeze," he said as he cleaned them off and snapped them on over his head like Tai always did.

"Where did you get those?" Tai gasped, not overseeing the significance.

"Huh?" Davis blinked. "Ah, well… You kinda gave them to me."

"Davis!" a voice called out.

They all looked up. Another boy, this one wearing a blue visor, was peering over at them from above with a Guardromon.

"Are you alright?" he called down to Davis.

Izzi looked at his laptop and found that this boy belonged to the blue digivice reading. The other two were just out of sight.

"I'm fine Kazu!" Davis called back. "Just getting a blast from the past!"

His words confused everyone, even the boy Kazu didn't seem to understand.

"What?" Kazu asked, waiting for the punch line of a joke of some kind.

"Never mind, just help us out of here!"

"Roger," chirped the android Digimon, sending down a cable from each arm.

Once everyone was up out of the chamber with the help of Kazu and another boy, J.P, they were startled to hear a familiar voice.

"Goodness! Now I see what you meant by a blast from the past, Davis."

Izzi nearly fell back down into the chamber below. They'd been standing out of sight behind the Guardromon when they were being brought up, but now they came into clear view. It was another Tentomon with an older boy, somewhere around the age of sixteen, who looked remarkably like him.

"Who are you," Izzi asked, bewildered.

The older boy chuckled.

"I suppose the simplest answer is to say that I am you."

"No riddles today please Izzi?" Davis sighed.

"It's not a riddle Davis," older Izzi said. "It's fact. He is from my past and I am from his possible future. This confirms my theory."

"Theory?" Davis sighed. "Can't that wait until we find the others?"

"It could," older Izzi admitted, "But it wouldn't harm revealing a part of it so that our friends here can have some peace of mind."

When no one tried to stop him he continued.

"…I've come to the conclusion that we have all come from different realities."

"What?" everyone asked, confused.

Older Izzi looked at his younger self as he pulled out his own laptop.

"Tell me what kind of readings you're picking up on your computer."

Izzi did as he was asked and showed him the screen with the four different digivice readings. Older Izzi then revealed the same readings on his laptop. Everyone else leaned in to get a look at one of the computers.

"You see these four different kinds of readings?" he asked.

They nodded.

"Pull out you digivices," he said, revealing his own digivice. It was identical to his younger self's digivice and that of his friends.

"Digivices?" Kazu and J.P. repeated as they rustled through their pockets and pulling out their own version of a digivice.

Younger Izzi realized that Davis, Kazu and J.P. had distinctly different models.

Davis's Digivice was white and oval shaped with a square screen in the top half of the device. The bottom half had a round button that looked like the toggle button on some video game systems that were used to scroll over to select something or move characters around. Next to the screen on the right there were two black buttons forming an oval shape together. One yellow button was between them and the toggle button. Its sides had blue grips and an antenna was positioned on the top left of the device.

Kazu's digivice was like a rounded T. It had a square screen in the center of the orange circle. On the top of the T, there was an orange strap that looked like it could go to a keychain. Below the screen in the bottom of the T there was a toggle button like on Davis's only this one had one orange button on the left and right side of the circle. One other button was located near the bottom left corner of the mini-screen. There was a slit in the bottom half of the device where it looked like you swiped or scanned something though it.

J.P.'s digivice was blue and had a shape similar to Davis's but it was larger and more angular. It had a mini-screen in the top third of the device inside a yellow hexagon with pronounced points. The bottom half had a yellow grip. There were two white buttons side by side above one little yellow one, and one white button on the left side of the device.

"Wow," Davis whistled looking from his device to Kazu's and J.P.'s. "I've never seen digivices like that."

"What, this thing?" Kazu asked. "This is a D-Power. All Digimon Tamers have this."

"Well ours are called D-Tectors," J.P. frowned looking at his device. He had thought that all of the D-Tector's had turned back into cell phones once they had left the digital world that last time. When had it made the change back?

"You see my point?" older Izzi prompted. "These digivices are merely one form of proof that there are different realities. Different realities and therefore separate Digital Worlds that had similar problems and needed their own DigiDestined to help solve them. You called yourself a Digimon Tamer right, Kazu?"

"Yeah…" the visor boy said slowly as if he was unsure of older Izzi's mental state.

"What does your group call themselves?" Older Izzi suddenly asked J.P.

"Huh?" the big boy gaped. "Uh… DigiDestined. Or at least that's what we were called when we were in the… uh our Digital world."

Older Izzi nodded.

"Do you guys not have Digimon partners?" he asked when he recalled that no Digimon was accompanying J.P.

"Well we had Neemon and Bokumon," J.P. mused, "but I wouldn't call them our partners. Friend's sure, but they were next to useless in a fight."

Both Izzi's looked thoughtfully at J.P. and that made him uncomfortable. He wasn't sure what he'd do when they finally asked him about how his friends were of any use without a Digimon partner to their version of the Digital World, assuming the older Izzi was right about them being from different realities with different Digital worlds.

Before either Izzi had the chance, however, both their laptops went off.

"Looks like we're getting new digivice readings," the younger one said.

Guardromon ran a scan and the older Izzi's found more life form readings too, but this time it was strange. There were four life form readings, but there were five digivice readings separate from them. Before each digivice reading overlapped one life form reading. He glanced at their current location to find that that was still true.

"Are you getting this Guardromon?" older Izzi asked.

"Affirmative," the robot beeped. "Most unusual."

"What is?" Tai asked.

"I'm hooked into Guardromon's life form scanner and we've picked up four life forms, but there are five digivice signals. Two yellow, one orange, one red and one blue. We can assume that the yellow signals belong to those of us with the original digivice, the orange belongs to those who have Davis's model, the blue belongs to those with Kazu's model, and the red signals belong to those with J.P.'s model. They're not too far away."

"I'm assuming that we're going to run into other older versions of us," the young Izzi stated.

"Most definitely," older Izzi agreed. "Now lets go find them."

The Digital World Location: The Ice Cavern

Joe inwardly sighed heavily since he could not externally. He, Cody, Michael, and two others were frozen solid inside a block of ice. Outside he could see Gomamon with three other Digimon pacing back and forth trying to figure out how to unfreeze them.

How did he get into these kinds of fixes? One moment the three of them were falling and the next they crash land with two strangers in a freezing icy cavern. One of they was a boy a few years younger then Cody with a large orange hat that introduced himself as Tommy. The other, a boy named Kenta, reminded Joe a little bit of himself, or maybe it was just the glasses. The point was there were all clueless as to how they got there or how to leave. Shortly after exploring the place they found their Digimon companions.

Cody's Digimon, Armadillomon, looked just as his name depicted: a yellow armadillo with a golden shell, red markings on his forehead, a purple underbelly and bright green eyes. He spoke with a southern accent the reminded Joe of old western movies.

Joe had never actually met Michael's Digimon, Betamon. He looked like a green tadpole with blue wavy stripes on his back, red eyes, four pronged legs, white underbelly and an orange fin that stuck straight up out of his back, doubling his height.

Kenta had a tiny pink Digimon that reminded Joe of a mini-Gomamon. It had green eyes, wings, gold collar, a red heart on its tiny chest, and it no legs, but two hand less arms (or at least Joe assumed they were arms). It had squealed with delight and zoomed around Kenta's head.

Joe noticed that Tommy alone had no Digimon partner to reunite with but he didn't seem to be missing one. He had merely looked at the others curiously.

After the short reunion the ground shook and suddenly a cold blast of air separated Digimon from DigiDestined and then next thing anyone knew the five humans we frozen alive, yet were somehow able to breath and see what was going on outside their block of ice. Joe prayed that the others were here too and would find them soon.

The Digital World Location: An Icy Tunnel Outside the Ice Cavern

Davis was following the two Izzi's next to Kazu and J.P. Guardromon was bringing up the rear. The younger version of Tai came up next to him and matched his pace.

"So Davis," he said, "you know us in the future, right? How do we meet?"

"Izzi did say that we're from a … possible reality for you guys so you may meet me a different way then I met the Tai from my world, if I even exist in your world at all and we even meet. Man all this alternate reality stuff is confusing," Davis sighed. "Anyway I met you by playing soccer. You were my team captain."

"Really?" Tai asked. "…You said I gave you my goggles. Why did I?"

Davis grinned. "The first time I went to the Digital world mine broke after a fight with a possessed Monochromon. You gave me yours because you believed that the leader of the DigiDestined wouldn't look right without them."

Tai mulled that over for a moment and Matt to the opportunity to ask the boy from the (possible) future some questions.

"What about the rest of us? How'd you meet us?"

"Well I've been in the same class as Kari ever since the third grade."

"Really?" Tai asked looking at his little sister. "She's just finished the second grade."

Davis nodded. "Yeah. We became good friends."

Kari smiled.

"I only knew you two until the day I became the DigiDestined. T.K. had just transferred to our school and I was all worked up because he already knew Kari and was a close friend of hers," he grinned at the memory. How stupid he had been.

"I only knew Izzi by reputation as the former computer club president and I only knew that because of Yolei, another of us new DigiDestined. Kari had mentioned him a few times as well and all I knew was that he was a friend of Tai's. Everyone else I met when we began our adventures in the Digital world."

"Why were new DigiDestined needed?" Matt asked. "Why couldn't we handle it?"

Izzi decided to intervene then.

"I'll take over from here Davis," he said.

His younger self watched him with great interest.

"Three and a half years after we defeated the Dark Masters and returned to our world Tai got an urgent message for help from Agumon via his digivice. He was somehow able to return to Digi-world and found him. He found out that another human had entered Digi-world calling himself the Digimon Emperor. He enslaved hundreds of Digimon and used his black digivice and the control spires to prevent Digimon from Digimon."

He paused here and glanced back at Davis. No one was comfortable bringing up Ken's past as the Emperor, but it was easier when he wasn't there. Davis took it particularly hard, because the two of them were now best friends.

"What?" Matt and Tai said angrily. "Why would he do that? Didn't he know that Digimon are living feeling creatures?"

"No," Davis said coldly. "He didn't. He regrets his actions as the Digimon Emperor to this day. It still bothers him and it wasn't his fault for the most part."

This last sentence was said sadly, earning him looks from everyone.

"The point," Izzi said to resume his story, "is that Agumon couldn't Digivolve even with Tai there. Gatomon and Patamon found them and they ran for cover inside a cave where Tai messaged the rest of us for help. Inside that cave was a Digi-egg with the crest of Courage on it. Tai, being the DigiDestined of Courage tried to pick it up, but it wouldn't budge. Instead three lights shot out of it and zoomed away.

At the time I was receiving Tai's message and came to Davis's middle school to use the computers. I ran into him, T.K. and Kari and two others, Yolei and Cody. With Yolei's permission as the new computer club's president we got access to the computer lab. Yolei and Cody left the lab and I was able to open a digi-port. While T.K, Kari and I where getting ready to enter the Digital world, Davis was arguing with us to let him come with, but we pointed out that he needed a digivice. That was about the time the computer flashed and three new upgraded versions of the digivice shot out of the computer. Davis got the blue one, Yolei got the red one and Cody got the yellow one."

Davis took over. "I was excited because I remembered Tai mentioning the Digital world and T.K. had just been proven wrong about me being able to go. We weren't on the best of terms with each other when we first met. But anyways, Izzi stayed behind while I accompanied T.K. and Kari to Digi-world for the first time. When we got there I had no clue what to expect like when a bunch of Numemon ambushed me from a vending machine. We found Tai and needless to say he was a bit surprised to see me. He took us to the Digi-egg and T.K. and Kari tried to pick it up, but they couldn't. Then Tai suggested that I have a go and I picked it up no problem. Then Veemon come out of the spot the egg had been."

The blue Digimon looked up at his partner.

"I'd been waiting a long time for someone to move that egg. It felt so good to be free! We've had some pretty awesome adventures together haven't we?"

"Yup!" Davis agreed.

"Alright, I'm with you so far," Sora said, "But how did releasing Veemon help the situation? The Digimon couldn't Digivolve right?"

"Right," Izzi said picking up the story again. "The digi-egg that Davis picked up was a special egg and enabled him to use an ancient form of DigiVolution known as Armor Digivolving. With the Digi-egg of Courage Veemon is able to Digivolve with the attributes of the crest. In other words the attributes of Agumon, Greymon, Metalgreymon, and Wargreymon. When Yolei and Cody came to the Digital world for the first time Sora and I accompanied them. The same thing happened to them that Davis went through. Yolei was able to move the Digi-egg of Love and got her partner Hawkmon, and Cody was able to move the Digi-egg of Knowledge and got his partner Armadillomon. All three had the power to use the digi-eggs to Armor Digivolve when the other Digimon couldn't."

"What about the other crests like mine, Joe's, Matt's, T.K.'s, and Kari's?" Mimi asked.

"I was getting to that," Izzi said as young Izzi continued to take everything in.

"T.K. and Kari found the digi-eggs with their crests on them next. They were able to lift them, unlike Tai, Sora and I, and their digivices changed to the upgraded ones that Davis, Yolei, Cody and the- ah, Ken had. So now Gatomon and Patamon were able to Armor Digivolve as well. As for the other crests, Davis, Yolei and Cody got them and so their Digimon have two different Armor DigiVolutions. Davis has the crest of Friendship, Yolei had Sincerity, and Cody got Reliability. And speaking of Armor Digivolving, Davis I want you to try to use the digi-egg of Courage to knock down this ice wall. We need Flamedramon's fire-rocket attack to melt it."

No one had noticed till then that the older DigiDestined had lead them into a dead end of ice.

"According to these readings our friends are just on the other side of this wall," he said. "Let's hope that Armor Digivolving works where normal Digivolved doesn't. If not, then we are in for it."

"Ready Davis?" Veemon asked his partner. "Let's show these guys was Armor Digivolving is about!"

Davis pulled out his D-3 and selected the right digi-egg on his D-Terminal, a small handheld messaging device that was getting popular in his world.

"Digi-Armor Energize!" He yelled and his digivice flashed and Veemon glowed golden yellow, as he should.

"Veemon Armor Digivolve to…!"

The light flashed, dissipated and a taller Veemon with chest, thigh, feet, hand and head armor with a spike sticking out of his forehead appeared. The armor had a flame design like you see on hot-rods and motorcycles.

"Flamedramon!" he announced in a deeper voice. "The Fire of Courage!"

"Whoa!" everyone but Davis and older Izzi gasped.

"Fire-rocket!" the evolved Veemon cried as he made a punching motion at the ice wall and fireballs shot from where his hands should have been.

It melted some of the ice, but there was plenty of wall left.

He growled, irked, and called out the same attack, only this time he charged at the wall with a flame-enshrouded figure. The wall melted nicely over his inflamed body, causing the air to mist.

"Nice work Flamedramon," Davis grinned.

His Digimon gave a satisfied sigh and began to smooth out the hole in the icy wall so that the newly made entrance to the next chamber was large enough for everyone, especially Guardromon, to go through.

It was freezing inside and it made Tai's and Davis's goggles frost over. It was empty for the most part and entirely made of ice. They stepped tentatively in, looking for the friends they hoped were in here.

"Davis!" a voice with a southern twang echoed through the chamber.

"Armadillomon?" Davis called out. "Where are you?"

"Right here," the armadillo Digimon cried as he suddenly popped out of the ground.

"He's not alone!" another voice cried out and Gomamon appeared with Betamon and Marineangemon.

"Now there's a familiar face," younger Joe's Gomamon laughed.

The other Gomamon stared at the younger versions of the original DigiDestined.

"Hey Izzi," he said slowly. "Am I seeing things?"

"No," older Izzi chuckled. "They are ourselves from a possible alternate reality. Our past selves."

"Oh is that all," Gomamon rolled his eyes.

"If you, Armadillomon and Betamon are here, then so are Joe, Cody, and Michael, right?" Davis asked.

"If Marineangemon is here then so is Kenta," Kazu cried and the tiny pink Digimon whirled around his head at the sound of his partner's name.

J.P. kneeled down by the new Digimon.

"Was there anyone else? Any kid without a Digimon partner?" he asked.

The four Digimon looked at each other.

"There was a little boy like Cody," Armadillomon said slowly. "He wore an orange hat."

"That's Tommy!" J.P. exclaimed.

"He looked pretty young," Gomamon said.

"He just turned nine," J.P. sighed. "Today, or at least the day it was in our world before we came here, was his birthday."

"Where are they," older Izzi asked, concerned.

The four Digimon looked at each other again.

"Frozen," came the unison reply.

They lead them to the ice chunk where their DigiDestined were frozen in.

"I see," older Izzi mused. "The reason we only picked up four life form readings and five digivice signals was because the DigiDestined were encased in ice. Guardromon's life forms scan looks for heat signatures."

"Are they alright?" J.P. asked worried as he stood in front of the small boy Armadillomon had described.

"I think so," the older Izzi said. "The Digital world isn't like our own."

"Flamedramon," Davis said, "Melt the ice. Let's get them out of there."

"You want it quick or slow?" Flamedramon asked as his armored hands burst into flame.

"Slow," Izzi said. "A major change in temperature could send them into shock."

"Got it," Flamedramon said as he put fist to ice.

It was a nerve rackingly slow process. Flamedramon worked from the top to the bottom and after twenty minutes Joe's head was free. He took a few deep lungfuls of air before he thanked the Digimon.

"Thanks," he sighed with relief. "You don't know how weird it was to be trapped in ice, but not suffocate."

Izzi caught his friend and the other four boys up to speed on their current situation after their heads were unfrozen as well.

"That makes sense I guess," Joe sighed, his entire upper half now free.

The other boys were still up to their armpits in ice, but at least they were fine, as fine as being frozen in ice goes. Flamedramon looked tired, but he kept on going with Davis cheering him on and the occasional encouragement from the boys still encased in the ice. When he finally did finish he immediately De-Digivolved back into Veemon.

"Nice work buddy," Davis said.

He picked up his collapsed Digimon and carrying him over the reunited group were introductions were being given again and more catching up on events.


	4. Chapter 4

This is the fourth chapter of the original version of the Ultimate Gathering of the DigiDestined. Again, there are only 6 of these chapters and most of the story line is the same. The only significant difference in these chapters is that the Adventure 01 cast is in it. Enjoy.

I DO NOT OWN DIGIMON ADVENTURE, 02, TAMERS, FRONTIER OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.

* * *

Chapter 4: The Sticky Reunion and Burning Determination

The Digital World Location: The Forest Cavern

While Joe and the others were being unfrozen by Flamedramon, Mimi and Yolei were waking in the middle of a small clearing in the middle of a forest.

"Mmm," Mimi mumbled as she sat up. "Where are we?"

Yolei looked around at the dense foliage all around them, noting that instead of a sky, there was a cave ceiling.

"Definitely not the park," she said, cleaning her glasses.

There was a rustling in the brush on their left and they jumped to their feet.

"Oh good," a familiar voice said. "You're awake. We were worried."

"Palmon?" Mimi gasped as her Digimon partner emerged from the forest.

She was with a bird Digimon with white and reddish-brown feathers wearing a band on it's head with a feather sticking up in the back.

"And Hawkmon!" Yolei cried as she ran to embrace him.

"Yes, it's good to see you too Yolei," Hawkmon gasped, "But your crushing my wings! Besides, we need to get moving. Something else is in here with us!"

Mimi and Yolei immediately became serious. They were in unknown territory and who knew what kind of evil Digimon lurked in these woods. They moved quickly into the forest and followed Palmon who insisted that she had an idea of how to get out of the cavern.

"Kyaa!" a voice screamed. "Somebody help me!"

"This way," Mimi said as she took off in the direction of the call for help.

Yolei followed, but she had a sinking suspicion it was a trap. It was no use talking Mimi out of anything because if someone was in need, Mimi was that selfless person who'd go out of her way to help.

They ended up in another clearing where Mimi swore that was where the voice came from, but no one was there.

"Help!" the voice cried again, loud and clear. It was a girl's voice. "Up here!"

Mimi and Yolei looked up and gasped.

A blond girl in purple was stuck in a large spiders web high up off the ground.

"Please help me," she begged, wriggling in the web, but getting nowhere.

Mimi and Yolei weren't the only ones who had responded to the girl's desperate call. There was a rustling on the opposite side of the clearing where Mimi and Yolei stood. A boy around Yolei's age with a small girl in tow had come too.

"Hen-wry," the little girl giggled. "That lady stuck in air."

"Suzie don't be rude," the boy softly scolded. "She needs help."

Two Digimon emerged from behind them. Both looked like a cross between a dog and rabbit. One was a creamy color with one horn on his forehead, two green horizontal stripes on his long ears, green tipped ears, hands, feet, and a green marking around his neck. The other one looked the same, but had different colors. It was light brown with pink markings and it had three horns on its forehead instead of one.

Yolei gasped, pointing at the cream and green colored one.

"They have a Terriermon!"

The boy reacted, finally noticing Yolei and Mimi for the first time.

"How do you know that's what he's called?" he asked.

"Because I've met one before," Yolei answered. "Our friend Willace has one."

"This is Lopmon!" the little girl squealed delightedly as she hugged the brown and pink one.

"Hello," Mimi smiled. "I'm Mimi and this is Yolei, my partner Palmon, and Yolei's partner Hawkmon."

The boy gave a curt bow.

"I'm Henry and this is my little sister Suzie."

"Heh-low!" the girl beamed.

"And I'm Zoe, so now that introductions are over can someone _please_ get me out of here!" the girl in the web cried out incredulously. After all, how could they just stand there chatting when she was in need of serious help?

"Oh dear," Mimi mumbled. "Just how are we going to do that?"

Zoe sighed. "I don't care how. Just get me out!"

"She noisy," Suzie complained to her brother.

Henry looked up to the cavern ceiling, praying the ground would just swallow him again. He knew Suzie was only five years old, but he wished she knew just a little bit of tact.

"How are you going to get her down?" a voice called out. "Well why don't we start by getting you all up there first!"

Suddenly all eight of them were hoisted into the air by invisible threads. Then the four children were thrown into the web with Zoe, and the four Digimon were thrown into a separate net hanging from a nearby tree. A vicious cackling filled the air and a large spider with gaping jaws and pincers hovered above her web.

"It's a Dokugumon!" Mimi gasped.

The spider Digimon cackled again.

"Ah, what sweet specimens I now have to eat," she sighed. "It will all be over soon. Just relax!"

She opened her gaping jaws and a gas flowed toward the helpless DigiDestined as its affects knocked them out one by one, but before Yolei lost consciousness she managed to dig out her D-Terminal and type an S.O.S. She only hoped someone was within range to receive it.

The Digital World Location: The Ice Cavern

Once completely free of the ice, Joe was inspecting Izzi because after Davis told him what had happened, he insisted on making sure his friend was all right. There was a reason he was going to medical school after all. After he was sure Izzi was in no danger, he checked Cody, Kenta, and Tommy over just to be sure they were fine after their little ice escapade.

His younger self was watching him tentatively, as if he wanted to talk, but wasn't sure how to start the conversation. Joe smiled. He remembered how useless and how much of an annoyance he'd once felt like.

"Yes?" Joe smiled, encouraging him.

"Ah! Um…" young Joe spluttered. "I was just wondering… well, why are we – you – going to be a doctor?"

"Ah," Joe mused. Yes, if he were this younger self he'd wonder that as well.

"Well," he started, "I suppose it's because I wanted to be needed. It was something that I was already prepared for and whether Dad had wanted it or not, I realized that as a doctor I could be much more help to the gang. Someone should have medical knowledge if we're going to be in strange worlds where little is known. I've even toyed with the idea of becoming the first Digimon doctor."

"Really?" young Joe asked.

"Yup!" Joe smiled. "I'm an intern at the medical clinic in Odaiba and I've already helped out with a lot of surgical procedures as well as normal check ups."

"Wow," the youth whispered. He was just entering his teens, yet this older self had recently graduated and was well on his way to becoming a doctor like their father.

It was quiet until a sudden beeping sound echoed around the chamber. Both Izzi's were confused because the sound wasn't coming from either of their computers.

"Oh!" Davis exclaimed. "It's me. I'm receiving a message."

He pulled out his D-Terminal just as Cody's and the older Joe's and Izzi's went off as well.

"It's from Yolei," Cody announced. "It looks like she's in trouble. All it says is 'S.O.S.'"

"Then we better hurry," Izzi agreed. "Guardromon, can you run another life forms scan?"

The robot nodded and expanded the range of search.

"Got it," Izzi muttered as he focused on the area where Guardromon had picked up nine new life form readings. It was too far away to get a digivice reading, but Izzi was positive that that was where they'd find Yolei and whoever was with her. The D-Terminals could only send messages to each other over certain distance. He inputted the shortest route to the area and got directions quickly.

Veemon was too tired to Armor Digivolve again so soon, but luckily Cody also had a Digimon who could Armor Digivolve.

"Cody, we need Digmon," Izzi announced as he led the group to the wall that would put them in the shortest tunnel that led to Yolei's location.

The boy nodded and pulled out his D-Terminal and D-3.

"Digi-Armor Energize!" he cried in his soft voice.

Armadillomon glowed like Veemon had when he Armor Digivolved.

"Armadillomon Armor Digivolve to…"

He was then replaced with a tall yellow and purple beetle looking Digimon with a drill for a nose, and drills for pincers on each "hand". The crest on Knowledge was scrawled on his back in purple with a bunch of other markings.

"Digmon! The Drill of Knowledge!"

Again, this different form of Digivolving stunned the others.

"Drill right here," Izzi said, marking the spot on the wall with a black marker.

Digmon nodded. "Stand back! Rock Cracking!"

The Digimon dove face first, with arms extended, and began to drill speedily through the icy wall. Once he was done drilling and everyone made it through the hole he'd made, they all followed the older Izzi. When they got closer to the other cluster on Guardromon's life form readings the two Izzi's computers went off, indicating that there were one yellow, one orange, two blue and one red digivice readings. This encouraged the group to hurry up even more and soon they reached the end of the tunnel and entered the underground forest.

"Whoa," little T.K. and Kari gasped.

"You said it," Matt agreed.

"Only in Digi-world," young Joe sighed.

"Mimi!" a voice called out.

Mimi squeaked with fear and looked at her Digimon.

"What is it Palmon?"

"But, Mimi, that wasn't me," Palmon shivered. "It sure did sound like me though."

"This way!" older Izzi cried.

The all rushed into a clearing where Izzi was getting the digivice readings, but no one was there.

"It's Izzi and Joe!" the other Palmon's voice cried from above.

"Davis and Cody too!" hooted another voice.

"Kazu and Kenta!" another two voices chorused.

Everyone looked up and they were shocked to see the prone bodies of their friends limp in the spider's web. In a nearby tree the other Palmon, Hawkmon, Terriermon and Lopmon were hanging in a net made of web.

"What happened here Palmon?" older Joe asked.

Palmon and Hawkmon went into a rapid explanation, wasting no time.

"Hurry," Palmon implored. "You have to get us out of here before Dokugumon returns!"

The web was too high up for anyone to do anything for their friends just yet, but they were able to get the Digimon out of the net.

"We have to wake them up," older Izzi sighed as he looked up at Mimi and Yolei. "If they were awake then it'd be easier to facilitate a rescue. Unfortunately whatever method we use will alert Dokugumon and give us only minutes to get them down. We need a plan."

"I have an idea if anyone wants to hear it," Tai said. "Our Digimon blast the web loose. If we wake your friends with a loud noise of some kind we can tell them to brace themselves for the fall. Then in mid fall we catch them."

"Sounds simple enough Tai," the older Izzi agreed. "And simple is usually best in these types of situations"

His younger counterpart nodded.

"We can use this net that the Digimon were trapped in," he said. "It's the same material as the web, which seems to be holding pretty well. I say we cut them out of one web and catch them in another."

"Sounds perfect," older Joe agreed. "But now how are we going to wake them up?"

"Yeah," Kari agreed. "I don't have my whistle anymore."

"Whistle?" Tommy repeated. "Oh!"

Everyone looked at the little boy.

"What is it Tommy?" J.P. asked.

Tommy reached down into his shirt and pulled out a whistle Takuya had given him for his birthday. He grinned.

"All right Tommy!" Kazu yipped. "Go for it man!"

Tommy nodded then took a deep breath and blew as hard as he could into the whistle. The ringing sound rang throughout the entire forest and continued ringing in everyone's ears long after Tommy stopped blowing. They waited with baited breath to see if Tommy's efforts had been worth it. Finally they saw movement. The Mimi stuck in the web moaned and Yolei grunted as she tried to stretch. Suzie started crying when she realized that she couldn't move and Henry tried to comfort her, but he couldn't move either. Zoe yawned then started to squirm, but made as much progress as the others.

"Hey girls and Henry!" Kazu yelled up. "We're going to cut you loose and catch you guys in this net! Brace yourselves."

The captives barely had time to register the information Kazu had just supplied them before the attempts to cut the net began.

"Feather Strike!" Hawkmon cried as he threw his head-feather like a boomerang near Yolei.

"Pepper Breathe!" Agumon cried before spitting out fireballs at the far corners of the web that were far from anyone.

"Blue-Blaster!" Gabumon cried, helping Agumon with the corners.

"Spiral Twister!" Biyomon crowed, hitting a section near Zoe.

"Boom Bubble…pah!" Patamon huffed, spitting an air bubble at a section of net by Suzie and Henry.

"Bunny Blast!" Terriermon spat, helping Patamon free his partner.

"Blazing Ice!" Lopmon cried before spitting fine ice crystals up at the web and marking the final blow before it all came crashing down.

The waiting DigiDestined below pulled out the net as far as it would go and caught their friends with ease. It was getting them unstuck that was the problem. It took agonizingly long minutes, minutes that brought Dokugumon closer.

"Aww, my hair!" Mimi, Yolei, and Zoe cried in unison once unstuck.

Suddenly there was a cackle and Dokugumon was back.

"I've had just about enough of her!" Yolei growled. "Hawkmon!"

"I'm ready Yolei!" her Digimon replied.

"Wait!" the older Izzi cried and grabbed Yolei's arm. "Have him Armor Digivolve! Normal Digivolving is impossible right now."

Yolei didn't ask for an explanation. "Alright."

"Get in there and help him out, Digmon!" Cody told his partner.

"You too Veemon!" Davis said.

"Right!" both Digimon agreed.

Yolei and Davis looked at each other as they drew their Digivices.

"Digi-Armor Energize!" they cried.

Hawkmon and Veemon glowed bright gold before changing.

"Hawkmon Armor Digivolve to…!"

"Veemon Armor Digivolve to…!"

Hawkmon came down on four legs like a mutant bird fused with a dog. The upper half of his face down over his neck was covered with a long helmet that had the crest of Love on the forehead and wings sprouting from the sides.

"Halsemon, the Wings of Love!"

Veemon was changing into his other Armor DigiVolution form. He came down on all fours and was covered in black grey armor from the front shoulders down to his rear, leaving his blue tail exposed. He had a black grey facemask that covered the top portion of his face with a lightening blot shaped horn coming out of his forehead. The crest of Friendship was painted on his chest.

"Raidramon, the Storm of Friendship!"

The three Armor Digimon attacked together to fend off Dokugumon.

"Thunder Blast!" Raidramon growled, spitting out a bolt of blue lightening.

"Tempest Wing!" Halsemon cried, as he spun so fast a tornado formed.

"Gold Rush!" Digmon cried before launching his drills like rockets.

The spider Digimon let out a shriek of pain and anger as she came crashing down onto the forest floor and disintegrated into tiny bits of data.

"Alright!" Davis, Cody and Yolei cheered.

Once everyone was reintroduced, the Mimi's began a cross examination of each other. Comparing notes and asking each other questions. It was a comedic sight. Older Izzi was catching Yolei and Henry on what was going on while Kenta kept little Suzie busy. Kazu was telling Guardromon to run another life forms scan to see if anymore friends were nearby.

Zoe found herself sneaking off to the side to sit between J.P. and Tommy. She knew that their absence of a Digimon partner had not gone unnoticed and she wanted to find out what had been said to explain that.

"Nothing has been explained," J.P. muttered so that only Zoe and Tommy could hear. "Izzi, the older one, tried to ask me when we met but then he got sidetracked by digivice readings."

"Why don't we just tell them?" Tommy suggested.

"Too many questions that are hard to explain," Zoe said. "We should be focusing on finding our other friends anyways. I'm hoping we won't have to answer any questions until we find Takuya, Koji and Koichi."

J.P. nodded. "Taki and Koji have an even better understanding of our situation then we do. I say we just kick back and let Izzi track down our friends. Then we'll talk." Taki was just a nickname that J.P. had come up with for Takuya.

"What's going on?" Tommy asked as everyone started to gather around the Izzi's again.

"Maybe they found more of our friends!" Zoe exclaimed.

"All right everyone!" the older Izzi was saying. "I want to know how many others we should be looking for. My group is missing six: Tai, Matt, T.K, Kari, Ken, and Willace."

"We're missing six as well," Henry said, speaking for his group. "Takato, Rika, Ryo, Jeri, Ai and Mako."

"We're only missing three," J.P. said, speaking up before Zoe could. "Takuya, Koji and Koichi."

Izzi nodded as he typed the data into his computer.

"There is another chamber up ahead with massive amounts of heat readings," Izzi explained. "I'm unable to register if readings are human or not, but I am going on the assumption that some are. We can't take the chance that they aren't. When we get closer we'll hopefully get a reading on any digivices. Let's go."

Everyone sighed but followed him once again. Many were tired and wanted to take a longer rest, but they knew that finding their missing friends was their number one priority. There was the possibility that some Digimon worse then Dokugumon was out there. It had already been a close call with Mimi, Yolei, Zoe, Henry and Suzie.

After leaving the forest the air was hot like an oven. Suzie wouldn't stop crying because her feet were hurting and she was all sweaty, so Henry picked her up and gave her a piggyback ride. No one was in a talking mood after that. Many felt sorry for the little girl. She was only five after all. They felt even more sorry for Henry because it couldn't have been easy to take care of one so small and irrational. Matt and Tai sympathized with him the most. Because they had little siblings too, but T.K. and Kari were old enough to fend for themselves to a point, whereas Suzie was helpless and needy.

They finally reached the chamber and looked inside it's sandy contents…

The Digital World Location: The Heat Chamber

Sora had no idea what to do. She was alone with Biyomon in what could only be described as a sauna. She was dripping with sweat and hated how her clothes clung uncomfortably to her skin.

"Hello!" she called out. "Is anyone else out there?"

"Sora," Biyomon whined tiredly, dying in the heat under her feathers. "Let's get out of here. We have to find the others."

Sora sighed. Biyomon was right. The two of them had been searching the chamber forever and now they were reaching their limits in this underground desert.

"Hello!" she called out desperately one more time.

"He…llo!" a soft voice called out. "Is …someone there?"

Biyomon's eyes widened.

Sora grinned and ran in the direction of the voice. "Yes! Hello! Is anybody out there?"

"Please!" the voice cried. "I need help!"

This made Sora hurry even faster. Biyomon was pressed to keep up with her. They finally found another girl collapsed on the ground with damp hair and a sweat soaked dress.

"Are you alright?" Sora asked softly as she helped the girl into a sitting position.

The girl smiled tiredly. "I am now. I thought no one would find me. It was so hot…"

"Can you stand?" Sora asked. "We have to get out of here."

She nodded weakly and allowed Sora to help her to her feet.

"I'm Jeri," she said, smiling.

"Sora," Sora smiled back. "And this is my Digimon partner Biyomon."

The girl's smile turned sad.

"I used to have a partner," she mumbled. "But he died…"

Sora's heart ached for Jeri. She couldn't imagine loosing Biyomon.

"Don't be too sad Jeri," Sora smiled, trying to cheer the girl up. "Digimon don't ever really die. They just get reconfigured into data again. That's all."

"Really?" Jeri asked, hope shining in her eyes.

"Yes," Sora smiled. "I'm sure you'll meet him again someday. Who knows? Maybe he's looking for you right now."

Jeri smiled and with renewed hope, began to walk with as little help from Sora as possible. They wandered for hours following the long walls until they came to the top of a hill. On the other side of that hill came a cool breeze from a tunnel that lead out of their nightmare.

"We made it!" Jeri cried, tears streaming down her dusty face.

"Yeah," Sora sighed. "We did."

"Look!" Biyomon cried, pointing one feathered arm towards their exit.

Sora squinted, but she could just make out a large group of people and Digimon.

"Hey!" she called out hoarsely. "Over here!"

Davis knew that there was no way that anybody was willing to go in. He was about to suggest that only a small search group go when he heard a voice call out.

"Hey… over here!"

"Someone's out there on that hill!" he cried after spotting the dark figures.

Older Izzi used the zoom function on his laptop's camera to get a better view of the hill Davis pointed at and gasped.

"It's Sora, Biyomon and another girl!"

"That's Jeri!" Kenta cried. "She looks awful! She could be hurt!"

"I'll get them," Davis cried, hopping on Raidramon's back.

"I'll come with you," Yolei stated, hopping astride Halsemon.

"Be careful!" Izzi called out after them as their Digimon took off across the desert like plain.

Davis was the first to reach them and quickly help Jeri from Sora's side and up onto Halsemon's back when Yolei arrived. Sora and Biyomon got on Raidramon right behind Davis and clung tight onto him as Raidramon took off back across the sands. Joe had water bottles waiting for them when they arrived. He looked them over and treated them accordingly to the best of his abilities. Kenta and Kazu looked after Jeri while Sora as filled in by Joe, who had heard Izzi's explanation so many times he almost completely understood what was going on.

Neither Izzi was picking up anymore digivice signals from the desert area before them so they turned the group around and headed for cooler tunnels. They found one with a few chambers with hot springs so they took the opportunity to take a quick rest, the girls immediately relived to get clean. The boys took a quick bath as well, and a half an hour later they were all off again.

Sora was soon in deep conversation with her younger self as the ever-growing group moved onwards, mostly talking about how well she got along with her mother after that first adventure in the Digital World. No one knew where to look next because there were no more digivice or life form readings in the immediate area. All they could do was wander through the tunnels hoping that they'd wander in the right direction.

They wandered for hours and still had no readings. Finally the older DigiDestined, Izzi, Joe, Mimi, Sora, and Michael decided that it was time to camp. All of the tunnels looked alike so one spot was just as good as another. Guardromon was given a break and entered sleep mode. A lot of the younger kids like T.K, Kari, Cody, Tommy and Suzie, fell asleep instantly, while older kids, mainly Tai and Matt, arranged a watch guard schedule. It was decided that the older DigiDestined from the future would stand guard with three to four of the younger children.

Mimi and Michael were in charge of the first watch with young Mimi, Zoe and Henry. Joe had second shift with young Joe, Matt, and Kenta. Izzi had the third watch with young Izzi, Tai, J.P. and Kazu. Sora had the final shift with young Sora, Yolei, Davis, and Jeri. The watches were only a precaution, but it turned out to be a good idea when in the final shift Davis thought he heard a voice.

He looked around trying to pinpoint where it had come from. Everyone was fast asleep aside from him and the rest of his guard group, but none of them seemed to have heard. He strained his hearing, trying to pick up any sound that was out of place. Then he heard it. A small scream, almost too far away to hear, but these tunnels had decent acoustics.

"Sora," Davis called out as softly as possible, but still ended up rousing a few of the others that were sleeping near his position.

The both red heads looked up.

Davis sighed. Something was going to have to be done if all of the original DigiDestined were going to stick around their "mini-me."

"Older Sora," he called over.

"What is it Davis?" she asked as she made her way over to him.

"Listen," he whispered.

Sora listened hard for a few minutes until she finally heard what Davis had heard. Her eyes widened. Then she hurried over to the sleeping Guardromon and woke him.

"Yes?" the robot wheezed as his body restarted.

"I need you to run a life forms scan," Sora said quickly. "Hurry!"

The robot Digimon's body whirred as it processed this new command and ran the scan.

"Detecting nine new life forms!" he chirped as the older Izzi's laptop began to beep with the faint traces of a digivice reading.

Izzi was awake instantly, tapping away to get a fix on the fresh readings.

"One yellow, two orange, one blue, and one red Digivice readings," he said, answering Sora and Davis's question before they could ask.

The other members of Sora and Davis's guard went around rousing everyone else awake, while Izzi tried to find the best route to get to the newly found DigiDestined. It took a while, but soon they were on the move again and headed in the direction of the voice that had alerted Davis.

"T.K!" the voice called out.

Davis's heart jumped into his mouth. That was Kari's voice and she sounded distressed. Something was wrong. He jumped onto Raidramon's back and took off ahead of everyone.

"Davis, come back!" older Joe yelled after him.

"I'll go with him," Yolei said, jumping onto Halsemon and taking off as well before anyone could stop her.

Young Tai hadn't missed the significance of the moment. He had recognized the voice as Kari's as well and had instinctively wanted to race off like Davis had even though he knew that his sister was right next to him. Matt had noticed as well.

Everyone else picked up the pace and raced after Davis and Yolei because Davis had Raidramon flying down the tunnel. Yolei and Halsemon where barely on their heels, but they somehow managed to keep up.

The tunnel entered a wide cavern that made the two come up short, allowing their Digimon to rest briefly. It was amazingly bright inside, so bright it was almost blinding after the dim tunnel light.

"Koji!" a girls voice called out. "Hang in there!"

"T.K!" Kari's voice echoed around the chamber. "T.K! Please answer us!"

"T.K!" Matt's voice now came out clearly. "Common, wake up!"

Yolei and Davis gave each other a concerned look. The others had caught up to them in time to hear Matt's cry.

Davis braced himself and charged into the brightly lit room with Yolei and the others were right behind them.


	5. Chapter 5

I realize that I posted chapter 6 twice, so here's the missing chapter 5. XD Sorry.

* * *

Chapter 5: Light in the Darkness

The Digital World Location: The Cylindrical Cavern

Kari remembered falling with T.K. when the ground beneath them at the park had split open. Matt had grabbed onto T.K.'s arm as they fell, his older brother instincts kicking in. The three of them fell for a long time before crashing into a round brightly lit chamber, getting tangled in a bunch of crisscrossed wires. The space wasn't too large, perhaps on eighty feet in diameter

Below them, Kari saw Gatomon, Patamon, Gabumon and a tall yellow fox Digimon. They called out greetings to their Digimon partners below just as a girl with flaming red hair fell into a section of cables right beside Kari. Only minutes later a boy wearing a blue and green streaked bandana landed next to Matt.

"Well that was fun," the girl said sarcastically.

The boy merely groaned as he carefully sat up.

"Rika!" the fox Digimon called up in a woman's voice. "Are you alright?"

"Renamon?" the girl gasped and looked down. "It is you!"

"It's good to see you again," the fox smiled.

Suddenly the bright room was plunged into darkness as if the power had blown. The cables groaned and lurched, swaying it's occupants dangerously. Kari felt T.K. leave her side, and Matt and the boy were suddenly gone too. Matt fell into another section of cables right below Kari, but T.K. and the boy fell a good ten feet more then Matt did. The boy managed to grab hold of a cable and hoisted himself up into a thick crisscrossed section, but T.K hit his head on the nearby wall and fell unconscious into a thick grouping of cables just below him. Kari and Matt called out to T.K, but he didn't respond.

It seemed like forever before the lights suddenly came back on an hour later. T.K. was lying unconscious with a nasty looking head wound. The boy above him checked his balance then, to his credit, managed to swing down to T.K. and land without sending both of them hurtling down again. He checked T.K.'s head wound and quickly applied some pressure, using T.K.'s own hat to stop the bleeding.

"How is he?" Matt called down.

The boy looked up. "I'm no doctor, but I think he'll be alright."

"Nice moves," the red head, Rika, commented.

The boy shrugged.

"So hot shot," she said mockingly, "got a name?"

"Koji," he nodded. "And you're Rika right? That's what the she-fox called you anyways."

"That's right," she said haughtily.

"I'm Kari," Kari smiled, relieved that T.K. was all right.

"And I'm Matt," Matt said. "And that's my little brother, T.K."

Koji made sure T.K. was in no danger of slipping out the cables again before he reclined to look up at the others above him. They were stuck there for hours and had tried to figure out how to get down, but a solution eluded them. They had no other option left to them but to converse with each other.

It didn't take them long to find out that they were from different Tokyo, Japans and had been to different Digital Worlds. They tried to describe their version of the Digital world and swapped Digimon account stories, but Koji kept out the fact that he'd been a Digimon in half of the encounters he mentioned. Like Zoe and J.P, he was determined to hide the fact that he was part Digimon in the Digital world until he was reunited with his brother and the others.

They all ended up dozing off after a while and woke when there was a sudden snapping sound. A killer bee looking Digimon called Flymon was buzzing around and snapping cables. He made quick work of the section where Koji and T.K. were hanging from. Koji tried to make a grab for the unconscious boy, but instinct got the better of him and he clung to one end of a cable and hung precariously from it's end. There were no other cable clusters crossed beneath him, only the fifty-foot drop.

T.K. was somewhat luckier. He landed in a cluster of cables, but was unstably balanced. There were no more thick clusters of cables to act as a net around him either. All Flymon had to do was go anywhere near enough to move any of the cables T.K. was on by one inch, and T.K. would fall until he hit the ground below.

"Get Flymon, Renamon!" Rika cried.

The fox Digimon leaped a good ten feet into the air and angled herself between Flymon and T.K.'s prone figure.

"Diamond Storm!" Renamon cried as diamond shards appeared and flew with deadly speed and force at the insect. Flymon didn't stand a chance against an experienced fighter Digimon like Renamon.

"Good work as always," Rika preened.

"T.K!" Kari cried. She called his name desperately over and over again.

Matt was more rational and asked Koji, who was in the more precarious position, if he was all right.

"Never better," Koji grunted as he tried climbing up the cable like it was the rope in gym class. He slipped, however, and just barely managed to grab hold of it again before its length ran out.

Kari had screamed with horror as he fell, afraid that Koji was about to fall to his death. It was this scream that Davis had heard in the tunnels. Koji attempted to climb up the cable again, but this time he took even more care while climbing. There was a tiny ledge right above him and he knew that if he could just get up to it, he'd have no trouble hoisting himself into the cable cluster right above him. If he got that far, he was going to attempt to get to T.K. again. He knew it was insane, but after spending time with selfless people like Takuya and his twin brother, he'd developed a selfless streak of his own.

Rika, Kari and Matt encouraged him until Koji finally made it to the ledge. After catching his breath, he launched himself into the cable cluster. He swayed dangerously from them and the others waited, holding their breaths. He finally got up there, leaned back, and let his heart settle as well as all the adrenaline that had coursed through him during the past ten minutes.

The three above him left out relieved sighs. He chuckled nervously, agreeing whole-heartedly with the sentiment. He gave himself three minutes before he attempted to reach T.K. There was a single long cable that stretched from above him to above T.K. on the opposite side of the chamber. It was a long way to go on one cable, but Koji believed that he could do it. He had to for T.K.'s sake. If T.K. woke up, the first instinct would be to right himself and that could send him falling down to his death. After he got over there, the next step would be to move T.K. into a less precarious position. Then Kari could try to wake him up again.

Koji sighed, took a few deep breaths and started the long journey across to the other side of the chamber. The three spectators above and the four below silently prayed that Koji knew what he was doing. Koji reached the halfway mark when his arms started to get tired. The stunts he'd been doing within the last fifteen minutes had all involved upper body strength alone. He kept on going, ignoring the numb feeling that was beginning to take hold of him.

'_Common_,' he thought. '_Just a little further_.'

He finally reached the point of the cable that positioned him above and to the left of T.K. when suddenly his cable snapped. With a gasp he fell and nearly landed on top of the person he was trying to help. T.K.'s body slid backwards off the cables, but Koji somehow managed to grab hold of his shirt collar and heft him back up next to him and balance him. Koji's own balance was thrown off after that and he was suddenly holding on by his arms. He tried to hoist himself up again, but his arms didn't want to work this time. He'd maxed them out, helping T.K.

"Koji!" Rika called out above him. "Hang in there!"

'_What does she think I'm doing_,' Koji thought exasperatedly.

"T.K!" Kari cried. "T.K! Please answer us!"

"T.K!" Matt called out. "Common, wake up!"

Despite their cries, T.K. remained unconscious.

"Kari!" A voice suddenly called out.

"Davis?" Kari called out, recognizing the voice instantly.

Davis appeared a minute later riding Raidramon. He took in the situation then faced Yolei who was coming right behind him.

"Go get them," he said pointing his thumb up at Kari, Matt and Rika, "while I get T.K. and that other guy."

Yolei had Halsemon take off, not bothering to argue with Davis, but she did find it odd that he didn't want to rescue Kari himself.

Davis had Raidramon pull up just under where Koji was hanging and charged him at the opposite wall. They used it to spring off of with a bounding leap, grabbed Koji just as he began to loose his grip, and bound off the other wall for a safe landing.

"Thanks," Koji gasped as he sank thankfully onto the ground.

Davis gave him a tight smile before wheeling Raidramon around again for a second try to get T.K, who was quickly slipping off the cables again now that Koji wasn't there to keep him balanced. They made the same pass, but Davis knew Raidramon had accidently overshot the trajectory the moment they left that first wall. Davis gritted his teeth, cursing inwardly for what he was about to do. He threw himself off Raidramon's back as they sailed over T.K.'s cables. It was around this point that the other DigiDestined reached the inner chamber. There was a chorus of gasps as Davis landed swaying in the cables and T.K. began to fall. Davis's hand shot out and grabbed T.K.'s, but caught him awkwardly at a weird angle and felt his shoulder twist and disconnect. It was his agonized scream that brought T.K. back to consciousness.

"Whoa!" he cried, "Did I miss something?"

"I'd say," Davis gasped through gritted teeth.

"Need a lift?" Yolei asked as she pulled Halsemon up underneath T.K.

"Thanks Yolei," T.K. sighed as Davis let him go, landing him neatly behind Yolei on Halsemon's back.

Davis let his arm hang limp in the air as he waited for Yolei to return for him.

"That was very brave," Yolei told him when she helped him gingerly in front of her on Halsemon. "Kari was impressed."

Davis smiled sadly, but this went unnoticed by Yolei.

Everyone was crowed around Koji and T.K. when Halsemon landed.

"Joe!" Yolei called out.

Both Joe's turned to look even though the younger one knew that the call was meant for his older self. The older Joe hurried over to Davis, his arm held up stiffly and at an odd angle by his side.

"I think his shoulder dislocated when he saved T.K," Yolei explained.

Hearing this, everyone instantly moved in to check on Davis while Joe gently prodded Davis's shoulder. Davis winced several times, but he didn't yell or cry, even though he felt like it. It hurt really badly.

"Yup," Joe sighed, making a pained face. "It's dislocated alright."

"Can you relocate it Joe?" Sora asked, holding Matt's arm. Their younger versions eyed their closeness, but were too worried about Davis to dwell on it much.

"Yes," Joe nodded. "I've done it before, but it'll be painful. It's twisted out of its socket so I'll have to re-twist it and then set it back in place."

Davis closed his eyes. It hurt badly enough already. He felt a hand on his good shoulder and turned to see T.K. and Kari. The sight of them together angrily pained him, but he stifled the undeserved feelings. T.K. was a good guy, and was right for Kari. He'd been right to save him.

"Thank you, Davis," T.K. said with meaning. "You saved my life."

"Bandana boy was doing a pretty good job before I showed up," Davis said.

"His name is Koji," Kari said softly.

"Yeah, Koji" Davis nodded. How was he supposed to know the guy's name? They hadn't even been introduced.

Koji showed up just behind Kari as if hearing his name had summoned him.

"Thanks for helping us out up there. I was in trouble for a moment."

"No problem," Davis shrugged, which was a bad idea with his right shoulder dislocated.

"All right everyone," Joe sighed. "Give him space. I'm going to reset his shoulder now."

Everyone hurriedly moved back and turned away. Henry made sure Suzie had her ears covered and that she couldn't see what was about to happen. Davis was mentally bracing himself. He didn't know what Joe was going to do, but he was sure it was going to hurt. A lot. He wasn't disappointed.

Joe steeled himself before twisting Davis's arm back into the right position. Davis couldn't hold back the scream as the shock traveled throughout his entire arm and across his chest. He coughed a few times as he caught his breath and was gasping at the end of it. No one could watch and many covered their ears.

"All right, Davis," Joe said soothingly, patting him gently on the back. "The worst is over. Now I'm going to pop your arm back into your shoulder socket. It's going to hurt, but it shouldn't be as painful as the twist. …Ready?"

Davis nodded, sweat dripping off his nose. Joe grabbed his arm again and pushed up. There was a sickening snap, but after that there was no more pain. Or at least not as much pain. His arm was numb yet it ached at the same time. He moaned slightly as his sore shoulder throbbed.

Joe was rummaging through his bag and pulled out an instant ice pack. He had thought they'd come in handy if someone sprained their ankle during their reunion. Now he was glad that he had brought his entire medical kit in case of emergencies such as these.

"Thanks Joe," Davis sighed as he applied the ice pack and began making a sling for Davis to rest his arm in.

"Are you alright?" Kari asked.

"Yeah," Davis smiled weakly. "Joe's set me right."

The relief was evident on her face.

"Hey Davis," Matt said, patting his good shoulder. "Thanks for saving T.K. I know you two aren't on the best of terms, but I really appreciate it."

Davis smiled. "It was nothing Matt. I'm sure T.K. would have done the same if our roles were switched."

T.K. felt a pang in his chest. No he wouldn't have. He would have gone for Kari without a second thought.

"Thanks Davis," T.K. said, trying to hide his discomfort.

Davis simply grinned at him, making him feel even guiltier. Everyone came to see how Davis was doing and introductions were made once again. After catching everyone up to speed, the group set off down the brightly lit chamber another connecting chamber that older Izzi said was there. When they reached the entrance, it was pitch black inside. According to the map on Izzi's computer, the chamber was significantly larger then the one they were in now and it's darkness seemed vast. The only light available was provided by Guardromon's headlight and a bunch of tiny little specs of light that reminded them of fireflies.

The Digital World Location: The Dark Chamber

Davis was riding Raidramon again, and found himself falling asleep slumped on Raidramon's neck. Kari and T.K. were walking next to him and didn't bother trying to wake him. Raidramon didn't either and kept a smooth gate, worrying that any sudden movement on his part might hurt Davis even more with his right shoulder out of commission. Joe even recommended that they carefully shift him into a more comfortable position so that he wouldn't wake with a stiff neck.

The lack of light was making many others tired, but they trudged on, looking for more signs of missing friends. Only nine were missing and that encouraged the large group to press on. They wandered in darkness for a long time before both of the Izzi's laptops and Guardromon's sensors beeped to life, waking Davis.

"Six new digivice readings," young Izzi reported.

"Ten life form signatures," the older one stated. "Not too far away either. I wonder why we are only just receiving these readings…"

"Does anyone else hear something?" Koji suddenly asked.

Everyone quieted down and listened hard. So far no one had been wrong about hearing something. And Koji wasn't wrong this time either. There was a whimpering sound coming from their right. The group hurried in that direction and soon they could hear a soft voice pleading with the whimpering.

"Common kids," the voice pleaded. "I'm right here! Common, snap out of it!"

"That sound's like Impmon," Renamon said in her low voice.

"That must be Ai and Mako," Jeri cried as she hurried forward.

"Jeri, wait!" young Sora and Rika called after her.

When they finally found Ai and Mako, the two were curled up in fetal position next to each other surrounded by a dark aura. Their shared Digimon partner was a purple imp looking creature with long pointy ears, a barbed tail, slanted green eyes and tiny fangs. He had a mischievous smiley face on his tummy and wore a red bandana around his neck and gloves.

"He's gone," Ai hiccupped. "He ran away."

"It's all our fault," Mako cried. "He left because we were too rough with him."

Impmon grabbed one shoulder on each kid.

"But guys, I'm right here! I'm not going anywhere either."

He turned helplessly to the large group of DigiDestined.

"They can't hear me," his voice trembled. "No matter what I say or do my words and touch doesn't reach them."

"Hey Sora," young Matt asked his friend, "Do you remember that tunnel Joe and I found you in when you came to find us before our fight with Piedmon?"

"Yes," young Sora agreed slowly.

"Remember how you were afraid that you'd let Tai and the others down if you couldn't find us? You fell into a tunnel the darkness that tried consume me earlier had tried to consume you."

"Oh!" both Sora's gasped.

"You think this might be the same darkness?" the older Matt asked, catching on to what his younger counter part was getting at.

"I do," he said grimly. "It's horrible. You feel as if the things you know you couldn't control were your fault anyway. And that whatever dark feelings you hold onto only get darker and feel like they're about to consume you. Only someone really close to you can snap you out of it. I had Gabumon and Sora had Joe and I. If the kids won't respond to their own Digimon then someone close to them or someone who can connect to them should try."

"I'll do it. I've been babysitting them for a while so they know me pretty well. Maybe I can reach them. I lost my partner, so maybe they'll listen to me," Jeri said.

She knelt down next to them and spoke gently and softly to the two kids. Everyone watched her, hoping she'd reach them.

"Ai? Mako? Can you hear me?" she asked.

The two kids sobbed silently for a moment but didn't reply.

"Can you hear me, Ai and Mako," Jeri tried again a little louder.

"…Yes, miss Jeri," they finally responded.

She looked up hopefully to the others. Rika even gave her the thumbs up.

"What's wrong?" Jeri asked them. "Why are you crying?"

"Because it's all our fault," Mako whimpered. "Impmon left us because we didn't take care of him right."

"We always fought over him," Ai added. "We hurt him, so he ran away."

"But he's right here," Jeri said gently. "He came back, remember? He's worried about you two. He wants to be with you."

"Really?" Mako asked, the dark aura around them beginning to lift from around them. "He's not mad?"

"No, he isn't," Jeri smiled. "Listen to him."

"Of course I'm not mad!" Impmon sighed. "I'm your Digimon. I'm supposta look after you guys. You're the only family I have."

Ai and Mako lifted their heads, saw that Impmon was really there and broke out into a fresh round of tears and hugged him between the two. The dark aura vanished instantly.

"It was so scary!" Ai gasped. "This voice kept telling us we were horrible Tamers and that we couldn't take good care of you."

"Yeah," Mako sobbed. "It said that you left us because you didn't need us and that you were better off with out us. That you left because we always fought."

Impmon teared up and reassured them that he wasn't going to leave them again and that they were the most important people in his life.

Jeri was relieved. She'd been worrying about the two kids the entire time she'd been in this world. They were left under her care and she felt responsible for keeping them safe. When Ai and Mako finally stopped crying, another voice could be heard up ahead. Koji recognized it was Koichi, and didn't waste any time getting to him. The others followed in hot pursuit.

Koji froze when he reached the spot where he'd heard his brother's voice come from. Unlike Ai and Mako who had merely been enveloped in a dark aura, Koichi was utterly blanketed in one. There was a thick fog barrier surrounding him and the only why anyone could know he was in there was the pained sound of his voice and the digivice reading that the Izzi's were receiving. But Koichi's digivice wasn't the only one in there. The other four digivice signals in the area were coming from the fog bank as well

Koji was about to rush into the barrier when J.P. stopped him.

"Let me go!" Koji snarled. "My brother's in there!"

"Cool it Koji!" J.P. said calmly. "You have to think first. We don't know what's in there with him. Let's think about this first."

"There doesn't seem to be any other life form readings inside," older Izzi mused. "It should be alright to go in there, but I suggest only a small group go in while everyone else wait out here. If those who go in need help then we can send in back up. Whoever goes in can communicate with me through their digivice."

"I'll go in," the older Matt volunteered. "I have experience with this darkness and have overcome it. I may be of some help in there."

"Well I'm going too," Rika said in a tone that called for no argument.

"I'll go too," J.P. nodded. "You're going to need a close friend on this one Koji. I know I'm not Takuya, but I have a little experience in this area myself."

Davis got off Raidramon's back. T.K. and Kari tried to stop him, but he ignored them. Raidramon reverted back to Veemon and jogged alongside his partner.

"I'm going too," Davis stated. "I have a feeling Ken is in there too and I'm going in after him."

"Davis, your still hurt from your shoulder being dislocated," the older Joe reminded him gently.

"I don't care," Davis said stubbornly. "Who else here has a better chance then I do of snapping Ken out of whatever darkness he's wrapped up with in there? You know I'm the only one who can! We're best friends and I was the only one who accepted him right after he stopped being the Digimon Emperor. If he's reliving that in there then I'm going to be the only one to get through to him and you know it!"

"He's right about that," the older Izzi sighed. "Davis is the only one we know of that has a good chance of getting Ken out of there."

"But we don't even know if he _is_ in there!" Kari cried out of concern for Davis.

"Actually we do," Izzi disagreed. "There is one orange and one yellow digivice signal in there with the red and blue. Ken is the only one missing that would have an orange digivice signal. I'm betting Willace is the yellow one due to the fact that there has been a theme to the chambers and whom we find. The DigiDestined in this chamber have a connection with Darkness. If Gabumon weren't a Digimon with a light attribute like Gatomon, Patamon, and Renamon, then Matt would have most likely ended up in this chamber due to his history with Darkness. Willace lost Kokomon to a virus years ago. I'd call that having a past connection with darkness. That is what makes me believe that he is in there as well. Tai's too optimistic for this place anyways."

"Then there's no doubt Koichi's in there," Koji muttered.

"If we're going on personality and history here," Henry said, "Then there's no way its Takato. The only one it can be is Ryo. We don't know what happened to him that year he was trapped in the digital world. I bet that's why he's here. Something bad must have happened to him in there during that time. So bad that he's forgotten all about it."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Davis exclaimed. "Who cares why they're here? The point is, is that they need our help to get out!"

"I'll monitor you guys from out here," Izzi said, clipping a headset onto his left ear, and lowered the microphone to his lips. "I'll communicate with you through Matt's digivice and you all can communicate with me through your own digivice as I guide you through. Just give me a second to get a readout on the fog…."

Everyone waited as the older kid clicked away at his computer before giving them the thumbs up.

Koji nodded and together he, the older Matt, Davis, Rika and J.P. entered the dense fog with their Digimon. It was pitch black inside and there was no tiny globes of light to light their way here.

"Izzi to Matt," Matt's digivice buzzed. "Can you read me Matt?"

"Loud and clear," Matt answered. "It's pitch black in here Izzi. Where should we go?"

There was a pause and the fuzzy distorted sound of typing when Izzi finally answered.

"The nearest signal is to your left. Make sure your all there and head ten steps in that direction."

Matt slipped his digivice back into his pocket before making sure the others were still with him. They held hands and walked ten steps to their left. The fog abruptly ended here and in the small clearing Koichi sat on the ground holding his head. Like the time they found Ai and Mako, he had a dark aura surrounding him.

"Koichi!" Koji cried as he let go of whoever's hand he'd been holding and rushed to his twin's side. The others were right behind him.

"Koichi!" Koji called as he grabbed his brother's shoulders and tried to get Koichi to look at him.

"I never told him," Koichi whispered. "I never got the chance to confront him. I never got to introduce myself to Koji."

"But I'm right here, Koichi," Koji cried. "You did! We met!"

"It's the same as Ai and Mako," Rika mused. "The person or Digimon involved in the dark illusion can't reach the one trapped by it."

"He can't hear me," Koji whispered as Rika's words sank in.

J.P. put his hand on Koji's shoulder and kneeled down next to him.

"Maybe not, but maybe I can. …Koichi? Do you here me pal?"

Koichi remained silent.

"…!...att! ….Matt!" buzzed Izzi's voice.

Matt yanked out his digivice.

"What's up Izzi?"

"Get out of there! There's a huge dark surge surrounding Koichi's digivice! He's the source of this dark fog!"

The darkness that had enveloped Koichi now surged and grew larger. J.P. grabbed Koji and yanked him away from Koichi. A dark figure was forming behind Koichi. It looked like a man in a terrifying Halloween costume. He was wearing black and red armor with a skull and eyeball theme.

"Duskmon!" J.P. and Koji gasped.

"Who?" the other three cried out.

There was more clicking on the other end of Izzi's communication line.

"Duskmon," Izzi's voice mused. "Uh oh. He's a champion level dark spirit Digimon that can transform other Digimon's regrets into dark energy. He's an expert swordsman with blades that can extend from his forearms. The source of his power is sealed in his armor's seven eyeballs. His attacks are Deadly gaze and Lunar Plasma. You better be careful guys."

Koji waited. Duskmon wasn't even moving. Then the sinister looking Digimon began to talk in his low voice to Koichi.

"But you did Koichi. Remember? I gave you the chance. It was the darkness in your heart that summoned me. Your so-called twin was living happily with your father and his new wife. He left you and your mother to suffer alone. Why should Koji live happily while your mother suffers?"

"No," Koichi whimpered.

"You were going to confront him. Do you remember what happened next?

Images were beginning to form in the darkness. Koichi and Koji were far apart on the train. Koji getting into the elevator and Takuya just barley making it. Koichi in front of the closed elevator door. Koichi running down the stairs. Koichi falling. Darkness.

Duskmon was looking more substantial. "You remember don't you?"

"Yes," Koichi cried. "But I also remember meeting Koji. We became close. Even after we returned from the Digital World. He met mother. I was going to meet father soon. He still doesn't know about us."

Duskmon chuckled.

"What a wonderful dream you've been having."

"Dream?" Koichi gasped.

"Don't listen to him Koichi!" Koji cried out, still restrained by J.P.

"You fell remember? You were never physically in the digital world. You died from your fall."

"No…" Koichi chocked. "No, I woke up. Koji was there."

"Wake up!" Duskmon shouted. "You're living in a dream."

"No!" Koichi cried, covering his ears.

"Stop lying to him Duskmon!" Koji yelled.

Suddenly Koji's D-Tector lit up and the darkness behind him took on a form as well. Like Duskmon, this Digimon had a human shape, but his armor was dark grey and had a lion theme. His chest, shoulder, and knee plates were lion heads. Even his facemask was a lion's head with a full yellow main of hair.

"Löwemon," Koji and J.P. gasped.

The new arrival ignored their outburst and passed right by them as he made his way to the troubled youth before him.

"Be strong Koichi," he said in the same low voice as Duskmon, but sounded more gentle and strong. "You know Duskmon lies. The bond you share with your twin is even strong. Don't let him convince you otherwise."

Koichi looked up at the spirit warrior.

"I know," he smiled sadly.

"The spirit of darkness is a greater burden to bear then any of the other legendary warrior spirits. There is a fine line to walk and many times that line is blurred. It is easy to forget and lose your way, but do not lose faith. Light, your brother and twin, is always there by your side to help you. Never forget that he is there and as am I. As your true spirit guardian, in your hands darkness is not evil."

The dark barrier around Koichi shrank, but did not disappear completely.

Duskmon glowered at Löwemon.

"We are two sides of the same coin," he growled. "Darkness and light may be brothers, but we are twins. The same element, split in two aspects; two faces."

"Be that as it may, Koichi is a chosen child and represents the pure darkness that is neither good nor evil. He shapes his own path," Löwemon said.

"The ideals of a hero," Duskmon scoffed. "There is no such thing as a neutral. He will either become good or evil. Darkness is an evil element. There is no getting around that. Why do you think their resistors suffer until they give in? The darkness will consume this child and there is nothing you, Löwemon, can do to stop it. I will become his true spirit guardian once again."

"Not if I can help it," Koji retorted, standing beside his brother between him and Duskmon.

"You can't be by his side forever boy," Duskmon guffawed. "He will be pushed to the edge and not even you will be able to save him when he falls."

"Enough," Koichi murmured in such a low voice is was almost a whisper. "To toy with me and mess with my head is tolerable, but never threaten Koji. That is something I won't stand for."

The boy stood by his twin and glared at Duskmon.

"Löwemon," he called softly, the dark aura seeping into his person. "Lend me your strength once again."

"With pride and pleasure," the warrior Digimon bowed and dissipated into dark particles that entered Koichi's black pulsing D-Tector.

"I'm sorry to make you worry Koji," Koichi smiled. "I'm back."

Koji's returning smile was relieved.

"Now leave this nightmare to me," Koichi said, returning his attention to Duskmon.

"If he destroys the illusion, the fog should dissipate," Izzi's voice said over Matt's digivice. "It should end whatever nightmares the other DigiDestined trapped in there are having as well."

"You two got all that?" Matt called over to the twins as he had J.P, Davis, and Rika move over towards him. "Go Gabumon."

"Give them a hand Veemon," Davis said.

"You too Renamon," Rika ordered.

"Right!" the three Digimon cheered, but when they moved forward to fight, they suddenly slumped in a heap.

"I feel weird," Gabumon moaned.

"I'm pooped," Veemon sighed.

"I can't move," Renamon grunted. "Something has zapped our strength."

J.P. pulled out his D-Tector and glanced at it. He realized that he and Koji didn't have the luxury to sit back and let the other kids handle this. Not with their Digimon unable to move. Looks like their secret was about to get out.

"Hey Koji! Do you and Koichi think you can handle it or could you use my help?"

Before Koji could answer, Koichi took a step further.

"That's not necessary, but thank you J.P," he said. "I can handle my own demons. Leave this to me. Please join the others Koji."

Koji was about to argue, but got a grip on himself. He had to realize that Koichi was strong enough without him and that helping him would only hinder his growth. Duskmon had been right about one thing. There would come a time when he couldn't always be by his twin's side. This was something Koichi had to do on his own.


	6. Chapter 6

This is the final chapter of the original version of the Ultimate Gathering of the DigiDestined. Again, there are only 6 of these chapters and most of the story line is the same. The only significant difference in these chapters is that the Adventure 01 cast is in it. THere will be no more of these. I only posted them because some of you wanted to know what the story would have been like with all four casts. I didn't continue the story this way because it got too confusing with the all the doubles running around and frankly I couldn't come up with a better nickname for Joe and the writers block was horrible until I started over and came up with the story I've been posting up to this point. Enjoy this final bonus chapter. Sorry for all the confusion.

I DO NOT OWN DIGIMON ADVENTURE, 02, TAMERS, FRONTIER OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.

* * *

Chapter 6: The New Enemy

The Digital World Location: The Dark Chamber

"Go for it," Koji told his twin before joining J.P. and the others.

"How's he going to fight Duskmon without a Digimon partner?" Rika asked.

"That's the thing about us," J.P. said, looking sidelong at Koji, making sure that they were in agreement about letting the others know. On the other end of Matt's digivice connection, the others were paying strict attention.

"We don't need a partner," Koji said. "We are our own partners."

Koichi held out his black D-Tector in his right hand then held it above his head. Then as if in a trance, he closed his eyes and moved his D-Tector hand down to his side while simultaneously moving his left hand up. Left palm out above his head, he opened his eyes and looked up at his raised hand as a ring of data appeared. Closing his eyes in trance, he switched the orientation of his hands again, only to suddenly open his eyes and bring both hand in front of him. Holding his left hand palm facing his body, his D-Tector hand clashed the D-Tector with the swirling data ring, creating sparks between the two.

"Execute! Spirit Evolution!" Koichi cried as he ripped the D-Tector away, dragging the data ring out in a ribbon stream that stretched and circled above his head. He was enveloped in a white light as his body's outline glowed and shadows began to swirl around him. The data ring that had circled above his head cocooned around his body and when he emerged he was Löwemon wielding a spear and shield.

"Go get him," Koji and J.P. whispered.

As if responding to his friend and brother's wish, the newly evolved Koichi spun his spear above his head, having it gain momentum.

"Let's end this!" he said firmly.

"If you wish," Duskmon answered ominously.

"Shadow Lance!" Löwemon cried, dashing forward and brought his spear down in a forward thrust.

"Lunar Plasma," Duskmon rasped as raised his swords then lowering them as he rushed, slicing, at Löwemon.

The two attacks sent up a cloud of dust that could even be seen by the others waiting outside the fog bank. When the dust finally settled the two were clashing swords, shield and spear. Neither seemed to be gaining the upper hand. They split apart and then called out their next attack.

"Deadly Gaze!"

"Shadow Meteor!"

Powerful red and purple blasts of energy flew in all directions, shredding the fog, and reveling the other missing DigiDestined who were hidden in its folds. Ryo, Willace, Ken and their Digimon were looking around confused as if they had just been awoken from a dream. While Davis, Matt, and Rika rushed to their confused friends, J.P. and Koji rejoined the group that had been waiting outside the fog.

Now that all the DigiDestined were together minus Tai, Takato, and Takuya, they looked on and watched the ongoing battle between the two dark Digimon.

"Who are they?" Willace asked.

"The creepy one is Duskmon," Zoe said. "He's bad news."

"The other is my brother," Koji explained. "J.P, Tommy, Zoe, Takuya, Koichi and I all possess one spirit of the legendary warriors from our version of the Digital World that represent one of ten elements. As you can see, my twin holds the spirit of darkness."

A few of the others expressions darkened.

"So is he your evil twin?" older T.K. asked grimly.

"Doubt it," Davis coughed. "You didn't see him in action."

"No he's not evil," Tommy giggled then paused to think over what he said. "Well at least not any more. He was evil when we first met him."

"But he was misguided and being controlled by an evil Digimon back then," Zoe said in Koichi's defense. "When he used to be possessed by the warped spirit of darkness he was Duskmon. Takuya and Koji defeated him eventually and than he became a good guy. He even sacrificed himself to save us in our final battle."

"Is that what Duskmon meant when he said Koichi died?" Davis asked Koji.

"No," Koji sighed, watching as his twin and Duskmon started trading blows at a close range again. "Koichi didn't come to the Digital World in the same way as the rest of us. We rode a Trailmon there. He …fell down the stairs at the Shibuya train station when he tried to follow me. He went into a coma and his consciousness somehow crossed over to the Digital plain. An warped evil Digimon known as Cherubimon twisted the darkness of Koichi's sadness and despair against him, made him forget his past, and gave him the tainted spirits of Darkness that turned him into Duskmon. Like Zoe said, he became good again and fought alongside us all as we took on the next evil Digimon, Lucemon, and his cronies. In the final battle, Koichi sacrificed himself to save us. I thought he had died since it was his spirit and not his body that had crossed into the Digital world. After that battle on our way home, the spirit of Löwemon told me that Koichi was still alive. We rushed to the hospital, but he was unresponsive and he heart had stopped beating."

Koji had to stop for a moment. Even the memory was horrible enough to make his stomach drop and his gut to churn.

"You have no idea how horrible I felt," he choked. "To suddenly find out that I had a brother. A twin! Only to lose him once in the Digital world, receive hope that he was still alive in our world, but only to lose him again anyway. To never get to know who he was. But that was when our D-Tectors came to life. Koichi woke up and the D-Tectors reverted back into cell phones. Koichi and I got a second chance."

"You didn't know each other?" young Matt asked.

"Koji and Kochi's parents divorced soon after they were born," J.P. explained. "They didn't even know that they had a twin living with the other parent."

"My dad got remarried," Koichi said. "Dad told my that Mom was dead. I rebelled and used to be rude to my stepmother. In reality Mom was just really frail and sick. She raised Kochi herself and he worked very hard to keep her healthy. When his – our – grandmother died she told Koichi about me. He did exactly what I would have done. He found me and wanted to meet me."

"We all got messages to go to Shibuya train station to seek out our destinies," Zoe said, staring at her D-Tector.

"I've been wondering that," J.P. mused. "When did our cell phones turn back into D-Tectors?"

"Maybe when we came here. We need our D-Tectors more then our cell phones here, J.P."

"I suppose so."

The older Matt was thinking back to when he'd met Koji. They hadn't introduced themselves yet, but Koji had risked his own life to save T.K. many times in that cylindrical chamber. Was it because he knew what it felt like to lose a brother?

"Koichi!" Koji cried, brining everyone's attention back to the fight raging before them.

Löwemon had just gotten slammed into a wall next to them, but not before sending Duskmon flying in the opposite direction.

Koichi realized that if the battle went on any further, he'd lose whatever equal ground he held against Duskmon. He had to gain the upper hand and there was only one way to do that.

"Slide Evolution!" he cried, surrounded by the cocoon of data again and emerging as a black machine lion with guns embedded in his shoulders, legs and back.

"Alright! He's slid into his beast spirit form, JägerLöwemon," Koji grinned.

"Beast spirit form?" Ken asked.

"All warrior spirits have two forms: a human form and a beast form. Löwemon is the warrior spirit's human form. JägerLöwemon is his beast form."

Koichi readied his guns and took aim.

"Dark Master!" he called out as his cannon launched dark energy bursts at Duskmon before he could get up. When the dust settled, Duskmon was nowhere to be seen. Guardromon's scan no longer showed his life signature, so he was presumed destroyed by JägerLöwemon's strongest attack.

Koichi immediately reverted back to his human self, and slumped against the chamber's wall.

"Koichi!" Koji cried, rushing to his brother's side.

The others followed; older Joe prepared to give any medical assistance if it was necessary.

"I'm alright," Koichi sighed with the hint of a smile. "Just worn out."

Koji let out a relieved sigh, making his twin chuckle.

"Relax Koji. Next time, do feel free to jump in."

"That was amazing!" Davis cried. "I've never seen anything like it."

"None of us has," Izzi corrected him.

"Pretty fancy moves there," Ryo grinned. "Cyberdramon was just itching to join in."

"Who?" many of the other DigiDestined asked in unison.

"My Digimon partner," Ryo grinned, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder to dragon type Digimon with black armor and upper facemask. He had red bat like wings, fierce spikes on his forearms, fangs and claws.

Ken stared at Ryo, noticing him for the first time.

"Ryo?" Ken gasped. "Ryo Akiyama?"

Ryo turned to face Ken and paused. The other boy looked familiar, but he couldn't put a finger on it. He thought hard. If guy were a lot younger and had shorter hair…

"Ken?" Ryo gasped, finally recognizing him. "Ken Ichijoji?"

"Whoa! You guys already know each other?" Davis and Rika cried.

Ryo laughed. "Man! You've grown up! Weren't you just a little squirt a year ago? How is this possible?"

"A year?" Ken laughed. "Ryo, it's been over four for me."

"Wow," Ryo sighed. "Four years huh?"

"Yup!" Ken grinned. "You didn't have a partner the last time I saw you."

"Ah. Yeah," Ryo laughed nervously. "I guess."

"You guess?" Ken asked, frowning slightly.

"The truth is I don't really remember much Ken," Ryo smiled sadly. "I remember you, but that's about it."

"Ryo's lost a part of his memory," Rika explained. "He doesn't remember anything before meeting Cyberdramon in the Digital world or before we rescued him. He'd been missing in our world for over a year."

"No wonder no one could find him," Kazu grinned. "He wasn't even in the same world anymore."

"I guess I can't blame him for forgetting, Ken," Wormmon said, coming into view for the first time. This was Ken's partner, a caterpillar type Digimon with purple pincers and markings.

"What do you mean?" Ryo asked. "What happened?"

Ken looked at Wormmon. He wasn't too clear on that memory either.

"When Ken first came to the Digital world we met you while wandering the desert. You had some Digimon allies Ryo that you said had joined you on your journey but that not one of them was your partner like I was to Ken. You didn't have a Digivice back then either. Then Millenniummon attacked us."

"Millenniummon?" Ryo and Ken repeated.

"Yes. He was particularly bent on fighting you Ryo. He was jabbering about destiny and how you and he were linked in a great thread that would decide the fate of all worlds. He ignored Ken and I for the most part but he was really rude to Ken when he did take notice. The battle was a gruesome one and many of your allies fell, Ryo. In the end Millenniummon was defeated, but the three of us were the only ones left standing. But before he disappeared, he released on final attack at you Ryo, but Ken knocked you out of the way and took the blow himself."

Ken's neck pricked and his hand instinctively reached up.

"The dark spore," Ken said grimly.

Wormmon nodded. "It took three full weeks before you recovered and Ryo helped return you to your world… You vanished after that Ryo.

Ryo's mind whirled.

"I remember," he gasped. "I'd been summoned to the Digital world to fight Millenniummon in the first place. I had raised a resistance force to fight him. I defeated him once, but he opened a rift that spat us out somewhere in the desert. That was when I met Ken. He joined us and together we defeated him once again, but after he returned to his world, I was pulled back into the rift. I met Monodramon in the next place I ended up. He became my partner and I finally got my own digivice. Together we fought in a tournament that was rigged to help us come out on top so we could defeat Millenniummon, but after we fought-!"

Ryo spun around and looked at Cyberdramon.

"Millenniummon said that he was my true partner, but Monodramon fought back, saying that he was my partner now. They somehow became fused together…"

Cyberdramon nodded.

"I am the result of their struggle."

"Is that why you used to be so out of control?" Ryo frowned. "You constantly wanted to battle. Being your Tamer was a great challenge. What mad you change?"

"When we came to your world I was reverted back into Monodramon. The warring interests of Millenniummon and Monodramon were settled and became fused. I am a fusion of them in both body and now in mind as well," Cyberdramon explained.

"Well this is all fascinating and I'm glad Ryo has his memory back and all," Rika interrupted. "But we still have three missing persons right?"

"Oh I wouldn't say they're missing," Davis grinned.

"And why's that?" both Izzi's frowned.

"Because _they_ found _us_!" Davis laughed, pointing to three approaching figures in the gloom holding blazing torches that lit up the gloom. The light bounded off Takato's and Takuya's goggles.

"Hey!" the older Tai waved as they approached, his Agumon right behind him."

Takuya and Takato simply grinned.

Many of the DigiDestined who didn't know Takato gasped at the giant dinosaur Digimon that was his partner. A fusion of a T-rex and a raptor, Guilmon had a red hide, white underbelly, golden yellow eyes, batwing-like ears and black markings on his face, arms, chest and feet. The one on his chest looked like a hazard-warning symbol. He loomed next to Takato, matching his tamer in height.

"Hey Tai!" Davis called back, rushing to meet the other "Goggle Heads" as Rika put it.

"What happened to your arm Davis?" Tai asked as he eyed the younger boy's sling and the ice pack strapped onto his shoulder.

"Ah well," Davis spluttered, "I kinda dislocated my shoulder. But don't worry! Joe fixed me up."

Tai frowned, but it was a concerned frown. "Are you alright?"

"Sure he is!" Veemon cried, taking his place by Davis's side. "He's got me!"

Tai laughed. "He sure does."

Then the eldest leader looked around and noticed the younger versions of the original eight DigiDestined.

"Whoa Izzi, What'd I miss?"

It took a while to reintroduce, re-explain and retell events of everything before everyone was on the same page and same understanding.

"Well one of the first things we should do," Davis complained. "Is come up with some way to identify the DigiDestined here who have duplicates!"

"It is a little confusing," the older Sora agreed.

"Well we older kids can go by our full first names. So you'd all call me Taichi from now on," the older Tai said, pointing at himself.

"Right," older Matt agreed. "So I'm Yamato."

"Takeru," older T.K. nodded.

"Hikari," older Kari smiled.

"Koushiro," older Izzi sighed.

"Well what about Joe, Mimi and I who have shorter names to begin with?" the older Sora argued.

"Hmm," Taichi hummed. "That is a problem."

"Why don't we come up with nick names for you guys?" Yolei suggested.

"Yeah, we could call Joe 'Doctor.' Doc for short" Davis grinned. "Not very original I know, but it works."

"That's fine with me," older Joe shrugged. "I'd assume you would be talking to me anyway if you called me that. It's simpler that way."

"Ok, so Joe's Doc," Taichi nodded. "Now what about Sora and Mimi?"

"How about Libby for Mimi?" Michael suggested.

"How'd you get Libby out of Mimi?" young Mimi giggled.

"Simple," the American grinned. "We live in New York and when people think of New York most would think of the Statue of Liberty. She's a fine and just lady like Mimi. So Libby – short for liberty – is Mimi."

"I rather like that!" older Mimi giggled. "Alright I'm Libby from now on!"

"Oh brother," Koushiro muttered.

"And for Sora how about Sky?" Willace suggested. "That's what her name means in Japanese right?"

"I can live with that. It's better then Doc!" Sora grinned, elbowing her friend.

"All right, so now that that's settled," Taichi laughed. "Lets focus on getting out of here."

"I agree," Takato nodded. "But how do we go about doing that?"

"Izzi- I mean Koushiro was able to find you all with his computer alongside Guardromon's life scan readings," Taichi stated. "He could use his computer to find a way out as well."

"I'm glade you have such confidence in my abilities Taichi," Koushiro grimaced, "but I'm afraid that isn't as easy as it sounds. This place is enormous. There are so many passageways and caverns that it will take days to get out. When I zoom out of our current position there is even more to this place. It's more than a maze, it's a labyrinth!"

"So what do we do?" the newly named Sky asked.

"I'm not completely sure," he admitted. "But in this situation we should head in one single direction. If there is no exit to the outside then Digmon could just dig us out."

"Sounds like a plan. Which way should we go?" Davis grinned.

"I think we should just continue in this direction," Izzi stated, glancing at his older self. "We've come so far in this direction that it's likely that we've already made plenty of progress to any exit in this portion of the labyrinth."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Then lets get moving," Rika said impatiently.

Everyone wandered for hours following Koushiro's directions. There didn't seem to be any end to the maze and the map on his laptop continued off the screen.

"Takato," Guilmon could have said for the hundredth time in the last hour. "I'm hungry."

"We're all hungry Guilmon," Henry sighed.

"Takato, if he says that one more time, I'm having Renamon skin his hide for new shoes!" Rika said through gritted teeth.

"He is getting rather annoying," J.P. sighed.

"Hey guys!" both Izzi's yelled in unison.

"What is it?" almost everyone cried.

"Is it food?" Guilmon asked. His went comment ignored by everyone.

"We've finally reached an edge of the labyrinth!" Izzi yelled excitedly.

"There's no sign of an exit, but Digmon can handle that," Koushiro added.

"Absolutely!" Armadillomon smiled.

With more determination than before, the DigiDestined hurried in the direction of their possible exit. When they reached the final chamber they stopped short. It was just a smooth wall. Not many had hoped for an obvious exit like a door, but the sight of the blank wall was depressing all the same.

"Well, Armadillomon," Cody sighed. "Looks like we need Digmon after all."

"Gotcha," the Digimon said, stretching.

"Digi-Armor Energize!" Cody cried, holding out his digivice.

The Digivice flashed, but nothing happened.

"What?" Cody gasped. "Digi-Armor Energize!"

Again, nothing happened.

Davis and Yolei tried having their Digimon Armor Digivolve, but nothing happened either. Takeru and Hikari had no luck either.

"What now?" Yolei sighed. "Now none of our Digimon can Digivolve."

"I think I have an idea." Takuya grinned.

"What?" Koji asked.

"I'm gonna need Tommy and J.P. on this one," Takuya continued, ignoring his friends question.

"What for?" Tommy asked as he and J.P. joined him.

"What would happen if we were to alternately heat and cool a section of that wall rapidly?" Takuya asked.

"The rock would become fragile!" Izzi exclaimed, catching on fast. "But how are you going to heat and cool it? Veemon can't Armor Digivolve into Flamedramon and Betamon can't become Seadramon."

"Well yeah. Your Digimon can't Digivolve or Armor Digivolve, but we haven't tried Spirit Evolving. Koichi isn't the only one with a Digimon spirit form."

Takuya, Tommy, and J.P. pulled out their D-Tectors and the same data ring that had appeared on Koichi's hand before he became Löwemon formed around one of their hands. They clashed their D-Tectors into the rings and yelled out in unison.

"Execute! Spirit Evolution!"

Data cocoons spun around their glowing forms and in their place three Digimon emerged.

Takuya had transformed into a human-like Digimon with red and orange flame-themed chest, shoulder, forearm, thigh, shin and foot armor over black clothing. He had silver gauntlets on his wrists with three holes in each. There were three holes in his knee armor an on the top part of his armored shoes. His facemask had three horns sticking out of the top, holding back the thick mane of golden hair he now had. On his belt there was a strange symbol that Koji told the others was their warrior's symbol for fire.

"Ahh!" Takuya's new form cried. "Agunimon!"

Tommy looked like a tiny white bear that could stand upright with a streak of orange on each cheek. He wore a green head guard with a yellow bear's head on the headband part, metal shoulder guards, his right one with an orange arm guard. He wore a green vest with the Digimon warrior's symbol of 'ice' in a hexagon on the connecting chest piece and green and orange snow boots.

"Whoa!" he cried, sliding just a bit. "Kumamon!"

J.P. emerged in a spark of electric energy. His armor was purple and yellow and had a similar appearance to Agunimon's only with a beetle theme to it. His helmet had a beetle's horn on the forehead band and his warrior's symbol for 'thunder' was marked on his thigh armor plates.

"Yah!" he cried slapping his fist together. "Beetlemon!"

"Whoa!" Everyone cried out as the three newly changed human's charged at the wall that blocked them from the outside.

"Pyro Punch!" Agunimon cried, thrusting out his fists rapidly, heating the wall until it was glowing red.

"Blizzard Blaster!" Kumamon yelled as he pulled out the missal launcher that he carried on his back and shot out rapid bursts of snowballs over Agunimon's heated spot.

The two of them did this over and over again, heating, cooling, heating, and cooling in rapid succession, never giving the rock time to completely adjust. It began to crack in places.

"Now J.P!" Agunimon commanded.

"Thunder Fist!" Beetlemon cried, electric energy crackling around his fist as he thrust it into the center of the section of wall that Agunimon and Kumamon had been working on. The cracks widened and gave way a little.

"Thunder Fist!" he cried again and again until the wall crumbled underneath and let in a true shaft of light from the outside. Together the three Digimon warriors widened the hole until it was large enough for everyone to get out.

"They did it!" Taichi yelled out.

"Cool," Davis awed.

"Let's get out of here already!" Rika sighed exasperated.

The group rushed to the crude hole and scrambled out into the bright sunlight. Many sighed with relief.

"Wow, Taichi gasped as he looked around at everyone after Takuya, J.P, and Tommy de-digivolved. "How many of us are there?"

Koushiro glanced around and counted off each person. "There are thirty-eight of us humans, and thirty-one Digimon."

"Wow," Yamato sighed. "That's a lot of us to keep track of."

Everyone was now looking around at their large group, but one. Takuya was off to the side slightly clutching the front of his shirt. His chest was hurting and he was having a little trouble breathing.

'_Did I overdo it?_' he wondered.

"Takuya? Are you alright?" Tommy asked, realizing how hard his friend was breathing.

"What?" he grinned, trying to hide his pain as all the attention turned to him. "I'm fine. I must have gone a little overboard, that's all. Why? Even though you had a blaster, aren't you a little tired from all that work?"

"Oh. I guess I am a little," Tommy admitted.

"I'm a little worn out too," J.P. sighed dramatically, teasing Tommy. "Takuya wasn't the only one physically hammering at that wall. You had it easy with that blaster of yours."

Tommy and Takuya rolled their eyes and put their hands on their thigh, but in doing so Takuya elbowed his bag and felt the folder his doctor had given him. He remembered the medical test results for his cancer were in there. He had planed on putting off telling his friends about his terminal cancer, but now that they were in the digital and they had no idea what the flow of time was here in comparison to their own world, he realized that he might not have that luxury.

"Actually guys," Takuya sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "I have something that you need to know."

Koji eyed him suspiciously. His friend was unusually serious and that was never a good sign for Takuya.

"Well, what a large bunch you all are," a woman's voice echoed around the air. "Those senile old fools find the master so threatening that they simply brought everyone now didn't they."

Everyone looked up and saw a woman with silver hair in a red hat, dress and boots, wearing dark sunglasses.

"Arukenimon!" Ken gasped.

"Hello again," the woman sneered. "And how is our emperor?"


End file.
